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HOME EDUCATION: 



BY ISAAC TAYLOR, 

AUTHOR OP " NATURAL HISTORY OF ENTHUSIASM," " PHYSICAL THEORY OF 
ANOTHER LIFE," ETC. ETC. 



FIRST AMERICAN FROM THE SECOND LONDON EDITION. 



NEW-YORK: 

D. APPLETON & CO., 200, BROADWAY, 
183 8. 



H. LUDWIG, PRINTER, 

72, Vesey-street. 



/ 83 8*- 



,; 



PREFACE. 



In determining to give my own children the kind 
of education which I myself received, namely, a do- 
mestic one, I soon found the want, not merely of 
elementary books on particular subjects, such as I 
could employ with entire satisfaction, but also of any 
comprehensive system, specifically applicable to the 
peculiar circumstances of a home course of instruc- 
tion. 

In a word, and with all the respect that is due 
to the many able and amiable writers who have 
favoured the world with their thoughts on the gene- 
ral subject of education, I have felt myself compelled, 
as well to digest the principles of procedure in such 
a course, as to devise the methods proper for giving 
them effect. 

It is manifest that a scheme of family instruction 
ought, not merely to comprise what may, in some 



IV PREFACE. 

degree, compensate for the unquestionable advantages 
that attach to schools ; but also include the means 
for improving, to the utmost, those peculiar and in- 
estimable opportunities of moral and mental advance- 
ment which are to be found at home, and there 
only. Not to do this, would be to place ourselves 
in a position in which private education could not at 
all sustain comparison with the more usual method. 

Now, not to mention some incidental and yet im- 
portant recommendations of the plan which we have 
at present in view, the chief and the most decisive 
one, (moral considerations apart,) is the facilities af- 
forded, at home, for bestowing a well-considered cul- 
ture upon each of the several faculties of the mind ; 
and for doing this in the order of their natural de- 
velopment. 

This point may then be named, as the leading char- 
acteristic of the system which it is the intention of the 
present volume to explain. 

But a scheme of intellectual culture, conformed to 
the principle of a careful adherence to the order of 
nature, in expanding the several faculties, is not to 
be comprised within very narrow limits. Indeed it is 
evident, that an elaborate operation, extended through 
ten or twelve years, (the five or six years of infancy 



PREFACE. V 

not included,) if it be so far described in its details 
as to be made available to others, must occupy a 
good deal of room. In the present volume, after ad- 
vancing some observations applicable to the home 
economy in general, I have gone no further than to 
open the subject of a systematic culture of the mind, 
by suggesting some methods for eliciting, and for en- 
riching, those faculties that are passive, and recipient 
chiefly, and which, as they are developed early, de- 
mand the teacher's attention before the time when 
any strenuous labours ought to be exacted from 
children. 

I wish to secure the attention of some who may 
be my readers, to a point, adverted to more than once 
in the course of the volume, namely, that although 
the phrase — Home Education — understood in its pri- 
mary import, means, of course, the education of a 
family under the paternal roof; yet, the principles 
and the methods of instruction propounded in this 
work are, I hope, such as, with more or less modifi- 
cation, may be applied in all cases where the number 
assembled around a teacher does not greatly exceed 
the limits of a large family. 

In advancing, as I am now doing the principles 
and methods of Intellectual Culture, it would 
give me much uneasiness to find myself so far mis- 
understood, as for it to be inferred, that I assign 



VI PREFACE. 

Moral and Religious culture to a subordinate place. 
The reader would do me the greatest wrong in attri- 
buting to me any such intention. My most serious 
convictions, and I hope, too, my own practice, as the 
father of a family, are decisively opposed to so fatal 
an error. 

Having made this profession, which I do with some 
earnestness of feeling, it will not, perhaps, be required 
of me to state my reasons for avoiding, at present, 
those subjects to which, in fact, I attach supreme 
importance. 

Stanford Rivees. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE 

Points of Comparison between Public and Private Education, 1 



CHAPTER H. 
Happiness, the necessary Condition of Home Education, 23 

CHAPTER in. 
Family Love and Order, ■ 52 

CHAPTER IV. 
The Three Periods of Early Life— Infancy, 67 

CHAPTER V. 
The Second Period of Education, 117 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Third Period of Early Life, and concluding Term of Home Education, 135 

CHAPTER ,VH. 

Some Diversities of Mental Conformation considered in relation to Methods of 
Culture, 148 

CHAPTER Vni. 
Analysis of the Intellectual Faculties, so far as relates to the Culture of each, .... 171 



VIU CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 
Culture of the Conceptive Faculty, 181 

CHAPTER X. 
C ulture of the Conceptive Faculty in connexion with Language , 229 

CHAPTER XI. 

Training of the Sense of Resemblance and Relation, and of the Perception of 
Analogy, 256 

CHAPTER XH; 

The Analogical Feeling and Habit preparatory to the Expansion of the Abstrac- 
tive and Reasoning Faculties, 296 



HOME EDUCATION. 



CHAPTER I. 

POINTS OF COMPARISON BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 
EDUCATION. 

I am not about to compare public and private education 
as if intending to disparage the one, that the other, which 
is my chosen subject, may appear to the greater advantage. 
No question can reasonably be entertained as to the great 
benefits that attach to school discipline, whether effected 
on a larger or a smaller scale; nor is it to be supposed, 
whatever may be said of female education, that that of 
boys could, in the majority of instances, be well conducted 
beneath the paternal roof. 

The reader would have good reason to distrust the 
judgment of a writer who, for the purpose of enhancing 
the importance of the particular task he has undertaken, 
should speak of Home Education as if it were abstractedly 
and universally preferable to the opposite system ; or 
should affirm that it might be adopted by the generality of 
families : the contrary of both suppositions I fully admit. 

Having thus precluded a probable misunderstanding of 
my intention, I may with equal explicitness, profess the 

1 



2 home education: 

belief, first, that Home Education, if the principles and 
methods proper to it are well understood, is both practica- 
ble and preferable in more instances than has often been 
supposed, and especially so for girls ; and secondly, that 
this system is susceptible of improvements, such as could 
not fail, if adopted to any considerable extent, very sensibly 
to promote the moral and intellectual advancement of the 
community. 

It is especially with this persuasion that I come forward 
to recommend, warmly, but not blindly, that system of cul- 
ture which may be carried on in a private family. "With 
the methods of Home Education I have been at different 
times, and am now again, practically conversant; its theory 
too has engaged much of my attention ; and deeply im- 
pressed as I am with a conviction of the advantages that 
are peculiar to it, I shall think myself happy if, without 
attempting to alter the determination of parents who are 
actually sending their children to school, I may afford 
some aid to those who are wishing to retain them at 
home. 

I ought to premise that the phrase, Home Education, 
is not, in my view, to be strictly confined to the training of 
the children of a single family, under the paternal roof; 
but may embrace any instances in which the number as- 
sembled for instruction is not greater than may well con- 
sist with the enjoyments, the intimacy, the usages, and 
the harmony that ought to attach to a family. 

Understanding the term in this extended sense, I enter- 
tain the hope that, while professing to write for parents, I 
may render some aid to teachers also, having the charge 
of a limited number; for it is only reasonable to suppose 
that, as well the general principles of intellectual culture, 
as the specific methods of instruction which are applicable 
to the eight or ten children of a family, may be brought to 
bear with perhaps a little modification, upon the twelve» or 



ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 6 

fifteen, or even twenty, who may be gathered from several 
families. 

A Home, whether its inmates be related by the ties of 
consanguinity or not, is a place where the stress of govern- 
ment rests much rather upon affection, and sentiment, 
than upon rules and penalties, or the mechanism of external 
order. School, on the contrary, is a little world where, as 
in the great world, if delicate sentiments exist at all, they 
must be kept out of view ; or at least must neither be 
allowed to interfere with the movements of the general 
body ; nor must it be mainly relied upon. On this point of 
distinction much will be found to hinge ; — one might say, 
every thing, more or less immediately, within the two sys- 
tems respectively ; and especially so in relation to what- 
ever affects moral training. 

But to confine myself to my proper subject, it may be 
said that the culture of the intellectual faculties, in com- 
bination with a warm and refined family affection, tends to 
impart a healthy freshness to the mere reason, and to bring 
it into happy alliance with the moral sentiments, in a man- 
ner that can hardly be effected at school, and yet so as is 
highly conducive to the harmony of the faculties, and to 
the general efficiency of the character. 

It is probable indeed that some conductors of large 
schools may resent the supposition that the ennobling emo- 
tions of the heart are lost sight of in the communities over 
which they preside ; and may deny that feeling necessarily 
gives way to law, and to the force of mechanism, where 
numbers are to be governed. But while k is freely granted 
that, under a wise and skilful management, even in the 
largest schools, certain generous sentiments and motives 
of honour may almost supersede the operation of law and 
of its sanctions, yet it can never be pretended that emotions 
of this class are the same in themselves, or the same in 



4 HOME EDUCATION : 

their influence on the character, as the tender, profound, 
and personal affections which cement a happy family. 
The sacred feeling which is the bond of the home circle will 
by no means bear to be stretched much beyond the limits 
for which nature has woven it. The master of a school, if 
wise, firm, and kind, will no doubt draw to himself the 
respectful and grateful regards of his pupils; or of the bet- 
ter portion of them ; and so a good feeling may pervade 
the mass ; but who can believe that boys at school ever 
love their master as sons love a father ; or that they can 
feel one towards another as brothers 1 Nature is not to be 
imitated on so large a scale in her finer productions. 

Parents can hardly need to be reminded that if, in 
retaining their children at home, they have recourse to 
a stern and formal mechanism, or rigidly enforce a lifeless 
system of rules, to the exclusion of affection, the prime 
idea of Home is lost, and the disadvantages of a public 
education are taken up, without its counterbalancing 
benefits. The children of any such family would certainly 
be happier, as well as better taught, at school, than at 
home. 

Again ; a principal and necessary distinction between 
thetwo systems, now compared, is this, that while in the 
one, all methods of instruction and modes of training are, 
or may be, with more or less exactness, adapted to the 
faculties, tastes, and probable destination of the pupils 
singly, and may be accommodated to the individual ability 
of each ; in the other system, that is to say at school, it is 
the mass of minds only, or some few general classes, at the 
best, that can be thought of. It is true that a sedulous 
and conscientious teacher, or an ambitious one, from other 
motives, may take pains to adapt his usual methods of 
training to the taste and capacity of certain individuals, 
under his care, lending aid to the feeble, and bestowing 
especial care upon the intelligent ; but it might well be 



ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 5 

questioned, in such cases, whether the eighteen out of twen- 
ty are not losers to the whole amount of the peculiar regard 
that is given to the one or two ; or whether the damage 
sustained by some, be not just proportioned to the ad- 
vantages secured for others. School training to be equita- 
ble, must be a training of minds in the mass. 

And yet it is granted that even this undistinguishing 
mechanism, which is proper to a school, and which carries 
all before it with a sort of blind force, is in itself, in some 
respects, a good ; and that if some are the victims of 
it, to others it may be beneficial. There are children who 
are not to be advanced at all, except by the means of 
a mechanical momentum; and such might well be sent 
from home to school, on this sole account, that they will 
there be carried round on the irresistible wheel-work of 
school order. 

This allowed, it is yet unquestionable that great and 
indefinite advantages are derivable from an intimate adap- 
tation of every means of culture, as well in substance 
as in mode, to the powers, the tastes, and the talents 
of young minds, singly considered. This fitting of the 
process of instruction to the faculties that are to be trained, 
will, when skilfully made use of, bring all minds to a much 
higher level, severally, than (a very few excepted) they 
would have reached if dealt with in the aggregate. In the 
following pages frequent occasions will arise for pointing 
out the particular means that may be resorted to with the 
view of carrying this sort of adaptation as far as it is 
desirable it should go. 

But here it may properly be remarked, in furtherance 
of what has just before been said, that although, in a large 
school, even when broken up into classes, little regard can 
equitably be paid to individual peculiarities of faculty or 
taste ; the principle now named, as characteristic of home 
education, may readily be extended to schools not much 

1* 



6 home education: 

exceeding the bounds of a numerous family. In fact it is 
only the personal ability of the teacher, his tact, his in- 
telligence, and his assiduity, that can fix the limits within 
which the principle of adaptation may be made to take 
effect. There are those who could bestow individual cul- 
ture upon twelve, or fifteen, or twenty minds, more effec- 
tively than is done by others, charged only with two or 
three ; and far more so in fact than is often attempted by a 
perfunctory tutor of a solitary pupil. 

At home, not only are there few to be thought of, 
but these few are brought under a well-digested system of 
treatment, that is extended through the entire period of 
education ; and a teacher or parent who may have erred at 
first, in his estimate of a child's powers, has the opportunity 
to amend his judgment, and to modify his methods of 
treatment. But at school, even if a regard to what is due 
to all, did not prevent the teacher from thinking much 
of the capacities of individuals, the frequent changes that 
are taking place, and the short time, ordinarily, during 
which he has to do with any one of his pupils, must forbid, 
or greatly discourage his endeavours to suit himself, in any 
consistent manner, to the peculiar temperament of individu- 
als. The teacher's good will towards his pupils must 
be, and it ought to be, of a very moveable or transferable 
sort ; and any feeling, or any effort of a more special kind, 
even if it did not imply positive injustice to some, would 
involve the prejudicial consequences of favouritism. 

But home education, and especially when conducted by 
parents themselves, or under their immediate superintend- 
ence, may, in its successive parts, be specially adapted to 
the minds that are to receive it ; and may have the ad- 
vantage of the most intimate knowledge of the ability, and 
the tendency of each. Now it is obvious that the principle 
of adaptation, skilfully made use of, cannot but save much 
time and loss of labour ; and that it may moreover prevent 



ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 7 

the damage that is so often sustained by fine faculties, 
roughly treated with others. For example, a teacher may 
see reason for remitting certain pursuits with which the 
mind of the individual has absolutely no affinity, while so 
much the more attention is given to other studies, which 
nature has not interdicted. Or, on the other hand, extra- 
ordinary natural endowments may be watched over, and 
held in check, and guided, so as shall give them the ut- 
most ultimate advantage, and preclude the fruitless regrets 
of after years, under the recollection of squandered time, 
and misdirected industry. Again ; in diversifying the me- 
thods of teaching, in accordance with the capacities of 
those who are to be taught, much may be effected at home 
which could by no means be admitted at school ; and thus 
in fact the entire period of education may be turned to the 
best account ; while none are left to be the victims of fixed 
usages, and of courses of study proper perhaps for the ma- 
jority, but deplorably unsuited to the few. In fact it is 
more than a few who leave school almost totally deficient 
in mental culture, not because they might not have learned 
what would have quickened the faculties, and have been 
applicable to the occasions of common life ; but because 
they could never learn the particular things taught at 
school ; or not learn them in the particular mode which the 
unalterable usages of public education admit of. 

Home education therefore, in consequence of its power 
of adaptation, may be made highly advantageous as well 
to ungifted, as to gifted children. 

A natural transition leads us next to consider another 
important advantage of private, as compared with public 
education, namely, that whereas, in the latter, the choice of 
things to be taught, and of the method of teaching, in each 
branch, is everywhere governed, either by actual statutes, 
or by immoveable usages, and is moreover overruled, to a 
great extent, by sundry secondary considerations of ex- 



8 HOME education: 

pediency, or by a perfunctory regard to what is the most 
facile or practicable, and is therefore neither very compre- 
hensive, nor well proportioned — neither inclusive of all that 
should be taught, nor regardful of the several faculties 
of the human mind that ought to be trained ; on the contra- 
ry, home education, inasmuch as it is free, or may be so, 
from every sort of despotism, and side influence, is easily 
rendered (by whoever has skill to do so) in the fullest 
sense complete, as well in relation to the studies it is made 
to embrace, as to the faculties it endeavours to cherish. 
On this ground, if on no other, the practice to the principles 
and details of which this volume is devoted, possesses sig- 
nal advantages ; and the consciousness of them may well 
animate the exertions of parents who intend to adopt it. 

And yet, desirous as I am neither to be, nor to seem the 
zealot of the domestic system, which I adopt and recom- 
mend, I am forward to allow, first, that a school education 
which, on an abstract view of it, might be condemned 
as extremely partial and defective, may nevertheless, if 
vigorously conducted, subserve well enough the purposes 
of common, or even of professional life ; and further, that 
the usual course of school education, is, in fact, as compre- 
hensive as can fairly be expected, under the circumstances 
by which it is limited : nor must it be denied that, as a pre- 
paration for the labours and conflicts — the competitions and 
the crosses of real life, the rough treatment of school may 
be really preferable to the more refined and better digested 
but milder training which may be carried on at home. 

This concession being made, I do not hesitate to express 
my conviction, that a private education, well devised, and 
carried into effect with energy and constancy, is the only 
sort that, altogether, deserves the name in a philosophic 
sense : nor do I despair of being able, in the end, to con- 
vince intelligent parents and teachers that, on some such 
plans as those hereafter to be explained, and with the aid 



ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 9 

of a fair measure of ability, on the one side, and of natural 
capacity on the other, the intellectual faculties, whatever 
bias happens to belong to them, may receive a culture, and 
a preparation for culture, incalculably surpassing that which 
is ordinarily effected at school. Let it be granted that 
school education is as good as it can be, under all circum- 
stances : — but home education may be good absolutely. 
The one conveys certain easily communicated portions, 
or samples of learning; the other may impart the elements 
of all, in due proportion ; and may put the mind in a 
position to accumulate knowledge in any one direction, 
with the greatest advantage. 

Another, and a very material point of contrast, obtrud- 
ing itself while comparing public and private education is 
this, that, at school, and indeed in almost all cases of pro- 
fessional teaching — honourable as is the profession, and 
upright as may be the intentions of the teacher, there must, 
from obvious motives, be far more regard had to imme- 
diate and ostensible results — to the tangible product of 
the process of instruction, than to its remote influence and 
future effect, as bearing upon the adult development and 
actual employment of the faculties. Ordinary teachers, 
and even the most efficient and distinguished of them, are 
almost inevitably impelled by the wish, whether confessed 
or not, to make it appear, in no questionable manner, that 
they are fairly earning their remuneration, and are honestly 
rendering the quid pro quo to their employers. How con- 
scious soever they may be of aiming always at the real 
advantage of their pupils, they can hardly have stoicism 
enough to sustain, in silence, the imputation, very likely 
to be thrown upon them by inconsiderate and ignorant 
parents, of not having imparted an amount of learning 
equivalent to the stipend received. The training of the 
mind with a view to remote results is not what can fairly 
be expected from professional teachers. 



10 HOME EDUCATION: 

Moreover, the urgent influence of competition among 
teachers, and the stirring spirit of rivalry between public 
schools, have the same strong tendency to push forward 
whatever maybe brought the soonest and the most certainly 
to a palpable issue. The visible and audible sum total of 
accomplishments brought home by a boy when he leaves 
school, is what must be thought of, and the thought of 
which must govern the methods of teaching, as well as 
determine the choice of studies, and the degree of atten- 
tion that is to be bestowed upon each. Certain branches 
of knowledge, although of the highest intrinsic importance, 
are perhaps only in a low degree capable of being exhibit- 
ed ; and it is certain that there are methods of teaching 
what is taught which, while they invigorate the faculties, 
leave, in the memory, a smaller amount of particulars, such 
as can be adduced, or repeated. 

I hope this statement of a main characteristic of school 
teaching will not be thought illiberal : assuredly it does 
not imply the presence of any motive of a discreditable 
kind ; and if it involves any blame, it is a blame that should 
rest with parents, and must attach to public opinion, rather 
than fall upon those who have no choice but to meet the 
expectations of their employers, whether reasonable or not. 
Inevitable motives, not of mere interest, but of laudable 
professional zeal, and proper ambition, must always ren- 
der school education a system calculated to produce — 
speedy results ; and in its methods of procedure it must 
be more or less improvident, and in some degree wasteful 
of the intellectual vigour of the young : nor can it be ex- 
pected that any improvements yet to be made, either in the 
science or the art of education, should materially affect a 
course of things which arises necessarily from the relative 
position of parents and teachers. 

It is only at home that a principle altogether different is 
likely to be carried into effect, or that the remote conse* 



ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 11 

quenccs of early training should be admitted, without dis- 
turbance, to regulate the entire process. And yet, even at 
home, the influence of the very same motives must be guard- 
ed against in each instance in which parents avail them- 
selves, as ordinarily they must, of the services of teachers 
of particular accomplishments. The home teacher, with a 
natural solicitude to justify himself, or herself, will always 
be tending to the same point — a quick and visible result ; 
nor in truth, are many parents able thoroughly to dismiss 
from their own bosoms the instinctive desire to see their 
children shine, and shine in comparison with others. Very 
much that is gratifying must be foregone when a clever 
child, who might easily have been made to blaze with va- 
rious accomplishments, is quietly trained under a severe 
regard to what the future man may be, and do. 

But throughout the present work nothing else can be as- 
sumed but that parents, in deciding upon a home education 
for their families, have formed their resolution as to what 
they actually aim at ; and that they possess the self-deny- 
ing energy required for carrying on methods of culture, 
such as may not perhaps fully justify the principle em- 
bodied therein, until distant years come about, when the 
arduous engagements of life shall put that principle to the 
proof. 

The doctrine so much talked of of late, and so eagerly 
followed by many, is that of development ; and the ques- 
tion put on all sides is, ' What are the readiest and the 
surest means of expanding the faculties at an early age 1 ' 
But the very contrary doctrine is the one professed and 
explained throughout this work ; for I am bold to avow my 
adherence to the principle of repression and reserve, in the 
culture of the mind ; and it is this principle which I would 
fain convince the reader may be put in practice consist- 
ently with the conveyance of really more information, or 



12 HOME EDUCATION : 

of information more comprehensive and substantial, than 
is usually communicated at school. 

The principle of delayed development supposes a vigi- 
lant regard to be had to the spontaneous germination of the 
several faculties ; and a due care also that the vitality of 
each should be preserved throughout the period during 
which its expansion and exercise are deferred. The rule 
we have to recommend enjoins that excitement should 
be postponed, while nutriment is supplied ; and in a word, 
that the mental force should be husbanded, much rather 
than used. 

It is nowhere but at home that the experiment can be 
fairly tried, which shall prove whether, along with a full 
measure of mere learning, a far more vigorous expansion 
of the higher faculties at eighteen, than is often witnessed, 
may not be effected, by a thorough-going adherence to this 
rule of postponed excitement. It must be at home, if at 
all, that the force and fruitfulness of the mind may be 
kept in the bud, until the natural summer-time of action 
comes on. 

But it is manifest that we must not venture thus to delay 
the expansion of the faculties, unless we are able to calcu- 
late, pretty surely, upon commanding the future opportu- 
nity to carry forward the process of culture beyond the 
usual term of school education. If children are to be re- 
moved from our care, and are to abandon the means of 
improvement as they enter their teens, no choice is left us, 
but to develop the mind as quickly as we can. A some- 
what different case is however supposed throughout the 
present work. 

Little perhaps now remains to be hoped for, in relation 
to public education, beyond the gradual extension of the 
existing system, until it shall have embraced all classes of 
the community. But home education unquestionably is 
in itself susceptible of indefinite advancements ; and espe- 



ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 13 

cially by the means of a well-digested system of slow cul- 
ture, such as, while it animates without expending the 
early forces of the mind, makes preparation, during the 
former half of the entire period of education, for the exer- 
cises and labours of the latter half. 

The full conviction I entertain of the possibility of 
greatly enhancing the intelligence of individuals, and so 
that of the community, by giving effect to the principle 
now spoken of, has been a main motive in impelling me to 
undertake the present work. 

The practical decision which a teacher will be required 
to come to, when he has made his choice between a has- 
tened and a delayed system of development, must relate 
principally to the three following questions, namely, — 
What is it which, at certain stages of the process of educa- 
tion, should be taught, and what is better held in reserve ? 
Secondly, How far, in each department of knowledge, when 
it has been taken on the list, should instruction be carried 
beyond the rudiments 1 And lastly, Which of the faculties 
is it that ought, in compliance with the order of nature, to 
be early cultivated, or aided in its spontaneous expansion, 
and which should be held in check, or at least not elicited 
until a more advanced period 1 

Now it is the last of these three questions that is at once 
the most important, and the most difficult ; and in seeking 
guidance on this ground it must be confessed that very 
little comes to our hand that is distinct and practical. 
Much more has been said and written concerning the 
things that are to be taught, and the method of teaching 
them, than concerning the faculties of the mind that are to 
be trained, and the natural order of their development. In 
suggesting, as I shall have to do in the following chapters, 
various hints on this subject, I hope to observe the caution 
proper to one who is advancing upon a path not much 
trodden. 

2 



14 HOME EDUCATION : 

I ought perhaps at once to preclude the probable suppo- 
sition that the principle of delayed development implies 
either ignorance, or inertness of mind, at any stage of the 
process : for, on the contrary, I believe that the plans forth- 
with to be recommended, may secure a higher mental 
energy, and that more may be taught (or more of general 
knowledge) than is often attempted, in methods that do not 
impair the elasticity, or exhaust the force of the mind, and 
such especially as do not breed a distaste for learning. 

The distinguishing recommendations then, of private 
education (intellectual culture only now considered) are — 
1st, That the stress of the process may be made to rest 
upon the best sentiments, and upon the reciprocal affec- 
tions of the teacher and the taught, instead of its falling 
upon law, and routine, and mechanism : 2dly, That every 
thing, in method and in matter, may be exactly adapted to 
the individual capacities and tastes of the learner, and the 
utmost advantage secured for every special talent : 3dly, 
That it is, or may be, wholly exempt from the incumbrance 
end despotism of statutes, or of immemorial, but perhaps 
irrational usages, or of prevalent notions, and may come 
altogether under the control of good sense; and is free to 
admit every approved practice : and 4thly, That, whereas 
public education is necessarily a system of hastened de- 
velopment, private education is free to follow out the con- 
trary principle of retarded development. 

If it had come within my purpose to discuss the general 
question of the comparative advantages, on the whole, of 
the two systems, many other points must have been advert- 
ed to ; and especially so, if the moral and religious bearing 
of the subject had been included in such an argument. But 
although this general question is here held in abeyance, I 
would not even seem to be unmindful of the many and 
powerful reasons which may induce parents, even if home 



ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 15 

education be in their case practicable, yet to send their 
children, or at least their sons, to school. Such are — the 
superior practical ability of masters who have devoted their 
lives to particular branches of instruction ; — the advantage, 
so important to boys, of finding their level among many ; — 
the stirring and healthful influence of emulation ; — the 
means of acquiring self-confidence, and the probability of 
learning good sense and common discretion, as well as 
pliability, on that wider field ; and not least, the salubrious 
animal excitement, the buoyant inspiration of high sport, 
which is to be had on the play-ground, and for which, it is 
extremely difficult to find an efficient substitute in the quiet- 
ness of home. 

But then, if we were thus to go into the general ques- 
tion, we must put in the other scale — beside the merely in- 
tellectual advantages stated above, those reasons which 
spring from the fact (hardly to be denied) that home is the 
place where, if at all, purity of sentiment is to be preserved 
from contamination, where the domestic feeling may be 
cherished, and the heart and tastes refined ; and where, 
especially, religious knowledge, religious habits, a genuine 
conscientiousness, and an unfeigned piety, may best be im- 
parted, conserved, and promoted. These reasons will, 
with some parents, outweigh every other consideration ; 
and yet such would do well to remember that there is a 
balance, even in relation to the moral welfare of children, 
and that an extreme anxiety to seclude young persons from 
all knowledge of, and contact with the evil that is abroad, 
induces, often, a reaction, worse in its consequences than 
an early and unreserved acquaintance with the world as it 
is. None are more likely to meet with cruel disappoint- 
ments than those parents who trust too much to the inno- 
cence and ignorance which they think they can preserve 
within the sacred precincts of home ; for such are often 
astounded by the discovery of the simple fact that the hu- 



16 HOME EDUCATION : 

man heart wants very little infection from without, to ren- 
der it liable to the most fatal disorders. 

But dismissing this wide and difficult question, and the 
many subjects it would lead to, I yet feel inclined, as a not 
improper preliminary to the following chapters, to ad- 
duce some general considerations, recommendatory of 
Home education ; although by no means implying that it 
should always be preferred. My immediate object is not 
so much to prevail upon parents to train their children at 
home, as to fix the purpose, and to encourage the endea- 
vours of those who may actually have come to that de- 
cision. 

I shall take leave then briefly to point out the probable 
influence, upon the community, of the prevalence, to some 
extent, of Home education, as concomitant with, and sub- 
sidiary to Public education ; and what I mean to affirm is 
this — that, even if schools, and large schools, were granted 
to be generally better adapted to the practical ends of edu- 
cation than private instruction, and that the majority, of all 
ranks, should receive their mental culture in that mode ; 
nevertheless, that the welfare of society, on the whole, de- 
mands the prevalence, to some considerable extent, of the 
other method ; and that a portion of the community — of 
the middle and upper classes especially, should come un- 
der that very different and more intimate process of culture 
of which home must be the scene. The school-bred man 
is of one sort — the home-bred man is of another ; and the 
community has need of both ; nor, as I think, could any 
measures be much more to be deprecated, nor any tyranny 
of fashion more to be resisted, than such as should render 
a public education, from first to last, compulsory and uni- 
versal. 

It is found in fact that a quiet, firm, individuality, a self- 
originating steadiness of purpose, a thoughtful intensity of 



ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 17 

sentiment, and a passive power, such as stems the tide of 
fashion and frivolous opinion, belong, as their ordinary char- 
acteristics, to home-bred men ; and especially to such of 
this class as are mainly self-taught. Now we affirm that, 
whatever may sometimes be the rigidness or the uncom- 
pliant sternness of persons of this stamp, yet that a serious, 
and perhaps a fatal damage would be sustained by the 
community, if it were entirely deprived of the moral and 
political element which they bring into the mass. As the 
social machinery must come to a stand if all possessed so 
fixed an individuality as to think and act without regard to 
the general bent of opinion ; so would it acquire too much 
momentum, if none were distinguished by habits of feeling 
springing altogether from within. 

In schools, and especially in large schools, the two les- 
sons learned by boys — sometimes by two classes of tem- 
pers, but often by the same individuals at different stages 
of their course, are the lesson of domination, and the lesson 
of abject compliance with tyranny. Even the degree in 
which, of late, public attention has been directed toward 
the evils whence so much mischief has been proved to 
arise, has not availed to alleviate them more than to a very 
small amount ; nor can it be doubted but that, as well 
the habit of tyrannizing, as the habit of yielding servile sub- 
mission, notwithstanding the correction they may receive 
in entering upon life, must, more or less, continue to affect 
the dispositions of men, and in a real, if not in a very con-? 
spicuous manner, exert an influence over the political tem- 
per and movements of the community. 

But a very different class of feelings belongs to young 
persons educated at home, and who, although perhaps they 
may not be prompt to contend for the foremost positions 
in society, are wholly unprepared to cringe before arro- 
gance and oppression. They have moreover acquired in 
seclusion that decisive individuality of temper which impels 
2* 



18 HOME EDUCATION 



them on all occasions to search for a reason, satisfactory 
to themselves, before they bow to the dictates of those who 
have no right to their submission. Moreover, the bosoms 
of young persons who have been well trained amid the gen- 
tle influences of the domestic circle, and have lived in the 
intimacy of intelligent and ingenuous parents, and of other 
adults, are likely to be fraught with profound and delicate 
sentiments — with the love of truth, of justice, and of honour ; 
and they are therefore equally disinclined either to exercise 
despotism, or to yield to it. Young men so nurtured under 
the paternal roof, when, for the first time, they encounter 
the rude wilfulness, and the selfish violence of vulgar spi- 
rits in the open world, may perhaps recoil, and be tempted 
to leave the field in disgust: but they presently (if not natu- 
rally feeble-minded) recover their self-possession, and plant 
their foot firmly in the path where what is just and good is 
to be maintained against insolent power, or lawless aggres- 
sion. 

The substantial liberties of a community involve much 
more than either the bare protection of persons and chattels, 
or the ample exercise of political rights ; for there is a 
liberty of thought and of speech which maybe curtailed, or 
almost destroyed, in countries that are the loudest in boast- 
ing of their freedom. There is a liberty, moral and intel- 
lectual — the true glory of a people, which consists in, and 
demands the unrestrained expansion of all faculties, the ex- 
ercise of all talents, and the spontaneous expression of all 
diversities of taste, and of all forms of individuality. But 
this high liberty of mind, forfeited often in the very strug- 
gle of nations to secure or to extend political liberty, must 
assuredly be favoured by whatever cherishes distinctness 
of character ; and it must as certainly be endangered by 
whatever breaks down individuality, and tends to impose 
uniformity upon the whole. 

In this view, a systematic home education fairly claims 






ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 19 

no trivial importance, as a means of sending forth, among 
the school-bred majority, those with whose habits of mind 
there is mingled a firm and modest sentiment of self-respect 
— not cynical, but yet unconquerable, resting as it will upon 
the steady basis of personal wisdom and virtue. It is men 
of this stamp who will be the true conservators of their 
country's freedom. 

It may accord well enough with the designs of the pro- 
moters of despotism, whether democratic or monarchical, to 
recommend or enforce public education, both among the 
lower and the upper classes: nor indeed could any species 
of lawless power be secure so long as, from the bosom of 
many homes — homes sacred to truth and goodness, there 
were continually coming forth those whose minds have not 
been drilled to move in rank and file — who wear no livery 
of opinion, and whose undefined tastes are as decisively 
opposed, as are their formal principles, to arrogant usurpa- 
tions of whatever name. 

If we suppose home education to be very rarely practised 
in a community, while public education should prevail ; it 
must happen that all methods of teaching would tend con- 
tinually toward uniformity, and would, every year, with 
fewer exceptions, be ruled — if not actually by law, at least 
by fashion, until at length, either by statutes, or by usages 
which none would dare to infringe, the particular course of 
study, and the modes of instruction, would become every- 
where the same ; so that youth, hearing the same things, 
in the same tone, on all sides, would be moulded into a 
temper of unthinking acquiescence. 

But instead of this, only let the practice of home educa- 
tion be mixed, in a fair proportion, throughout a country, 
with that of public education, and then any such dead uni- 
formity must be broken up. Busy law, or intolerant 
fashion, may rule absolutely in colleges and schools ; but 
neither the one nor the other will so easily invade families. 



20 HOME EDUCATION : 

Family training possesses a spring of diversity ; it will be 
spontaneous in its modes of proceeding, various in its re- 
sults, as well as in its measures ; and will, on these ac- 
counts, impart a marked character to those who come un- 
der its influence. 

And yet, were the worst to come — or the worst in this 
particular view of our subject, and were public education 
to prevail still more extensively than it does, as necessary 
for boys, we should nevertheless have much to rely upon 
in counteraction of the evils thence resulting, so long as 
female instruction were, in a good proportion of instances, 
conducted beneath the paternal roof. But what idea can 
be more gloomy than that of a community which, Spartan- 
hearted, should denounce as " weak and unpatriotic," the 
parental fondness that detains daughters at home, and 
should hold in contempt every sentiment that endears pri- 
vacy as the scene of the gentle affections ! In England we 
do not wish to see the " Female Gymnasium." 

The reasons that impel us to admit the desirableness, 
and often the necessity of sending boys to school, apply 
very partially, if at all, to the education of girls ; nor do I 
hesitate to profess the decided opinion that, for these, home 
education is always to be preferred, unless, from the cir- 
cumstances of a family, there be some special difficulty in 
the way of carrying it into effect. And let but the home 
education of girls be amended a little in system, and be 
more generally adopted than it is, and then the influence 
of the sister, the wife, the mother, as well as of women in 
society at large, will directly tend to supply what has been 
lost of right feeling, and to repair what has been injured in 
the course of the public education which boys have passed 
through. 

Girls should then be educated at home with a constant 
recollection that their brothers, and the future companions 
of their lives, are, at the same time, at school, making cer« 



ITS COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES. 21 

tain acquisitions indeed — dipping into the Greek drama, and 
the like ; but receiving a very partial training of the mind, 
in the best sense ; or perhaps only such a training as 
chance may direct: and that they will return to their homes, 
wanting in genuine sentiments, and in the refinements of 
the heart. Girls, well taught at home, may tacitly compel 
their brothers to feel, if not to confess, when they return 
from school, that, although they may have gone some way 
beyond their sisters in mere scholarship, or in mathematical 
proficiency, they are actually inferior to them in variety of 
information, in correctness of taste, and in general maturity 
of understanding ; as well as in propriety of conduct, in 
self-government, in steadiness and elevation of principle, 
and in force and depth of feeling. With young men of in- 
genuous tempers, this consciousness of their sisters' supe- 
riority, in points which every day they will be more willing 
to deem important, may be turned to the best account, un- 
der a discreet parental guidance, and may become the 
means of the most beneficial reaction in their moral senti- 
ments. 

Parents, therefore, in the education of their daughters at 
home, will do well to keep in view this double intention of 
the course they are pursuing; and while bestowing their 
cares immediately upon these, recollect that they will have 
an influence to exert hereafter, such as will make itself felt 
far beyond its immediate circle. 

But throughout this work I must assume that family 
education embraces sons as well as daughters ; and indeed 
it is proper to advertise the reader that, generally, either a 
sort of intellectual culture, or a rate of proceeding, is 
described and recommended which, to its full extent, may 
not be found applicable to the female mind ; or even if ap- 
plicable, perhaps not necessary, or in all cases desirable. 
In the exercises of the higher faculties especially, here- 
after to be described, I must be understood as supposing 



22 HOME EDUCATION : 

the presence of boys ; and therefore some slight remission 
or modification of such methods may be found requisite, if 
girls alone are under tuition ; for it will generally be true, not 
only that boys surpass girls in the expansion of the reason- 
ing and inventive faculties, but that the presence of the for- 
mer will make it praticable to carry the instruction of the 
latter much further than could otherwise be attempted. 
Home education, including sons and daughters, and where 
high and pure principles are adhered to, may reach a point 
not to be attained without this admixture. 

And how happy is that domestic circle within which, 
while intellectual culture, in all its compass is going on, un- 
der the most auspicious yet mild excitements, the warm 
and delicate domestic affections — the reverential friend- 
ships of children and parents, and the gentle and sparkling 
friendships of brothers and sisters, are being cherished ! 



CHAPTER II. 

HAPPINESS, THE NECESSARY CONDITION OF HOME EDUCATION. 

It need hardly be said that the happiness which we 
speak of as a necessary condition of home education 
involves much more than what can come in our way while 
treating of intellectual culture merely. Family happiness 
is the fruit of a sound and vigorous moral and religious 
training ; and it mainly consists in the prevalence of those 
sentiments which such a training should diffuse. 

But even although these momentous subjects are not in- 
cluded in the intention of the present volume, they might 
yet find a place, incidentally, inasmuch as that, apart from 
the felicity which results from virtue and piety, even the in- 
tellectual culture of a family must be obstructed, and the 
success of the entire process of instruction will be render- 
ed very doubtful. 

Yet as, to do justice to a theme so important and so va- 
rious, would occupy a volume, the subject must of necessity 
be now adverted to only in a casual manner, and merely so 
far as some reference to it is requisite for conveying a ge- 
neral idea of the domestic educational economy, such as 
we conceive of it. 

Moral training then, using the term in the fullest sense, 
is affirmed to be a pre-requisite to intellectual culture, 
as well for other reasons, because it is the indespen- 
sable condition of that family happiness, deprived of 



24 HOME EDUCATION £ 

which the mental faculties either languish, or become per- 
verted ; the mind losing at once its spring and its equipoise. 
Scarcely a half of that invigorating treatment of the rea- 
soning powers, or of that refined culture of the tastes, 
which we shall in the end have to speak of, could be car- 
ried into effect in a family liable to the gloom and the 
storms, the harsh measures and the vexations, that attend 
moral disorganization, misrule, and the prevalence of ma- 
lign dispositions. 

Moreover, as the carrying fully into effect a system of 
home education, involves not a little toil, and must impose 
many restraints upon parents, they will find the need of 
motives to animate their endeavours more vivifying than a 
mere sense of duty. Home must be a sanctuary of exhila- 
rating enjoyments, as well as an abode of peace. The la- 
bours of every day must be relieved by the constant return 
of tranquil pleasures, and heartfelt delights. 

But the actual felicity realized at home, and the conse- 
quent success of the various processes of instruction, will 
£urn very much upon the idea which, from the first, parents 
entertain of it. Consistently with a sober regard to the in- 
evitable conditions of human life, the brighter is the con- 
ception which, at the commencement., we have formed 
of family happiness — the more happiness shall we be likely 
to secure, and so much the more prosperous will be our 
course in conducting the duties and labours of a domestic 
system. 

The adage — too happy ! did you but know it, might 
often be applied to a family. The essential and the incidental 
means of enjoyment actually within our reach, are frequent- 
ly lost sight of, or are but poorly improved ; and it so hap- 
pens that those who might have tasted, year after year, the 
highest felicity which earth admits of, have been less happy 
in fact than some, deemed by the world unfortunate. It 
may not then be out of place to adduce certain considera- 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 25 

tions, although of a very obvious kind, and such as are with- 
in the reach of every one's recollection, but which may 
serve the purpose of placing, in a more distinct point 
of view, the common means of family happiness. 

A family then, let it be remembered, is a little world, fur- 
nished with the means of preparation for meeting the du- 
ties and difficulties of the real and great world ; but yet en- 
tirely, or in great measure, exempted from several of the 
chief sources of uneasiness which therein abound. 

In the real world, for instance, those stern motives of 
necessity which urge men, in their several stations, to strug- 
gle with their fellows for obtaining, or for securing, first 
the means of existence, and then the means of pleasure, im- 
part, whether distinctly thought of or not, a depth and in- 
tensity to the selfish principle. But within the secure cir- 
cle of home, and in a family enjoying only a moderate and 
ordinary competency, nothing is known of any such harsh 
and chilling motives. No disparagement, no privation is 
to be endured by some of the little community for the ag- 
grandizement or ease of others. Along with great ine- 
qualities of dignity, power, and merit, there is yet a perfect 
and unconscious equality in regard tocomforts, enjoyments, 
and personal consideration. There is no room for grudges, 
or for individual solicitude. Whatever may be the mea- 
sure of good for the whole, the sum is distributed without a 
thought of distinction between one and another. This sin- 
gle circumstance, simple as it is, and little as it is thought 
of, would, if duly attended to, enable parents to cherish 
with more success those bland sentiments the development 
of which is favoured by it. Refined and generous emo- 
tions may thus have room to expand, and may become the 
fixed habits of the mind, before any adverse principles have 
come into play. Home is a garden, high-walled towards 
the blighting north-east of selfish care. 

3 



26 home education: 

Again : within the circle of home each individual is 
known to all, and all pay respect to the same principles of 
justice and kindness. There is therefore no need for that 
caution and reserve, or suspicion, or for those measures of 
defence and restraint, which in the open world, have relation 
to the guile, the lawlessness, and the ferocity of a few, and 
which are never altogether out of sight or out of mind. 
But these operate to depress very much the level of the ge- 
nerous sympathies, and to chill or deaden the happiest 
emotions of our nature. It is otherwise within the republic 
of home, where the most absolute confidence, and an 
unchecked good will may, and ought always to prevail ; 
nor need any noble and gentle sentiment ever be sup- 
pressed or disguised. Here then, if we use it, we have a 
capital advantage, and a main means for raising the happi- 
est feelings to a high pitch, and for keeping them there. 

It is furthermore a circumstance tending directly, if un- 
derstood and properly improved, to secure the happiness 
of home, that the form of government established there is 
absolute, and is founded upon a manifest and indubitable 
superiority of power, as well bodily as mental. Only let 
the supreme authority, in [any community, be at once the 
most wise, the most kind, and personally the strongest of 
all ; and then a very large portion of the woes and cares 
that infest the real world are provided against and excluded. 
Nothing else but absolute monarchy would be desired by 
mankind, if kings could be had, such precisely, in relation 
to their subjects, as a good and wise father is in relation to 
his children. The supreme parental power, understood 
and wisely exercised, is a most efficient means of happi- 
ness to all. 

But the principal fact, the recollection of which is impor- 
tant with the view of securing family happiness is — that 
beneficent constitution of our nature, which renders infancy 
and childhood, as distinguished from youth and manhood, 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 27 

the season of spontaneous felicity. Every one must be 
aware of this fact ; and yet the consideration of it enters 
far less than it should into our plans of domestic manage- 
ment. 

The natural felicity of childhood might in truth be 
assumed as the guiding principle of all education ; and 
most especially so of that which is carried on at home ; 
nor can we well attribute too much importance to the 
knowledge and recollection of it, as the rule and reason, 
the means and the end, of almost every thing that is at- 
tempted in carrying the domestic system into effect. 

Warm-hearted parents (or at least the mother) may per- 
haps almost resent the officiousness of a writer, who, as 
she will think, with superfluous zeal, would go about to in- 
duce her to pay more regard than hitherto she has done, to 
the happiness of her children ; or who, with such a pur- 
pose in view, should endeavour to point out that peculiar 
constitution of the infant mind, by which its felicity is se- 
cured, so far as it can be, by general laws. I am never- 
theless inclined to incur this risk ; and moreover to lay 
myself open to the charge of insisting upon what " every 
body understands," while I dwell a little upon a subject 
inseparable from the task I have undertaken, and mainly 
connected with every part of the system of culture herein- 
after to be spoken of. 

Adults look for external means of enjoyment, and seek 
happiness in the gratification of specific wishes or desires ; 
but an infant — simply protected from positive suffering, is 
happy from the stock of its own resources, and by the per- 
petual gush of joyous emotions, having no determinate 
direction as they burst abroad, like rills from a hill top, and 
which sparkle and dance as they glide away. 

Every one who is not too fastidious, or too supercilious, 
to give attention to facts of this sort, must have admired 
the pertinacity of nature (if we might so speak) in securing 



28 HOME EDUCATION '. 

the felicity- of childhood under circumstances the most adV 
verse — or adverse in our view. Particular instances of 
ill health, ill treatment, or ill temper excepted, children are 
as happy as the day is long, although grimed and grovel- 
ling about the gutters of the courts and lanes of London or 
Manchester : much more certainly are they happy — tatter- 
ed, dirty,, and ruddy r at the door of a hut on a common or 
road-side: — they are happy, more than might be believed^ 
in the cellar or the garret of the artizan, or in a jail r or even 
in a poor-house ! Nay r it must be granted by attentive and ! 
impartial observers, that the balance of joyousness would 
sometimes, and perhaps often, be on the side of children 
in some of these luckless positions, if put in comparison 1 
with those who, with golden ringlets and brilliant skins, 
make groups for the painter upon trim lawns, in front of 
sumptuous mansions ; for it is true that while, on the one 
hand, the spontaneous happiness of childhood requires 
only to be defended from positive disturbance, on the other 
it may be curtailed, or totally dissipated, by an excessive 
and anxious interference, intended to promote it. The 
happiness of children is not a something to be procured 
and prepared for them, like their daily food ; but a some- 
thing which they already possess, and with which we need 
not concern ourselves, any further than to see that they 
are not despoiled of it. This simple principle, if under- 
stood, trusted to, and constantly brought to bear upon the 
arrangements of a family, would at once relieve the minds 
of parents from an infinitude of superfluous cares. 

Those laws of the human mind whence the spontaneous 
felicity of childhood results, it may be well for a moment to 
advert to. It is common to say, or to assume that chil- 
dren derive the principal part of their enjoyments from the 
freshness and novelty of every thing that surrounds them ; 
and that objects which have long ceased to awaken the 
slightest pleasurable emotion in the mind of the adult, give 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 29 

a vivid delight to the infant, merely by their newness. 
But this is not a very exact statement of the case, and 
is much rather true of youth, than of infancy and child- 
hood. It is after the period of childhood has gone by, 
that the mind wakes up, and sometimes on a sudden, to a 
joyous admiring consciousness of the external world, as if 
just ushered into a fairy palace of wonders. Before the 
time of this quickening of the mind, it is very difficult to 
excite the same sort of emotions. A child — let it not be 
deemed paradoxical, a child draws its happiness, with very 
slender aid of external means, from the boundless field of 
its own conceptions, and from the treasures of its own un- 
spent emotions. A young person, on the contrary, asks 
large supplies of external excitement, and is ever eagerly 
in quest of extrinsic means of gratification. During the 
first period of life the soul is occupied in evolving the ele- 
ments of its happiness; during the second in imbibing 
them : that is to say, in gathering new materials for future 
combination. 

Man, as compared with the inferior orders around him, 
is distinguished by the vast extent, as well of the pains as 
the pleasures he is susceptible of, beyond the limit of his 
merely animal sensations ; and this extension of suffer- 
ings, or of enjoyments, springs from the working of the 
mind — the conceptive faculty especially, upon the organic 
elements, whether of pain or of pleasure. And these 
mental extensions of pleasure and pain are proportionately 
the greatest in those cases in which the bodily sensation is 
the least intense. In all instances, and most so in those of 
the kind last named, man suffers or enjoys a hundred times 
more than is possible to the brute. 

But on this ground there is to be noticed a striking pe- 
culiarity of childhood, as distinguished from adolescence 
and manhood ; and it is this, that, whereas the pains of the 
infant are scarcely if at all extended beyond the limit of 

3* 



30 HOME EDUCATION T 

animal uneasiness, its pleasures are expanded, and com- 
pounded, and enhanced, incalculably beyond the simple 
organic gratification. While therefore its pains are as one 
or as two, its pleasures are as ten, or as a hundred. A 
child, as compared with an infant, has learned to extend 
his sufFe rings a little beyond the limit of animal sensation ; 
but then, in a still larger proportion, he extends his plea- 
sures beyond that boundary ; the balance therefore is much 
on the side of happiness. 

Let any one, familiar with children, analyze a child's 
tranquil felicity while amusing itself, for an hour or more, 
with nothing better than a crooked stick, or a handful of 
pebbles. What can be the bare gratification of the sense 
of touch, or of the muscular power, or of the sight, which 
such objects can convey t it must be reckoned as extreme- 
ly small ; nor is it possible to watch the movements and 
countenance of an infant of fifteen months, or two years, 
whilst so engaged, and fall into the great error of suppos- 
ing that its delights are chiefly animal. It is the mind, it 
is the rich, and grasping, and excursive human mind (such 
even in infancy) that is at work on the poor materials of 
its felicity. This crooked stick, or these pebbles are sym- 
bols of many things we adults do not dream of in such a 
connexion : and they suggest conceptions of things dimly 
recollected, and now absent, which people the fancy in 
crowds, and lead it on, until the soul is lost in the chace. 
In a following chapter I shall have occasion to revert to 
this curious and important class of facts, and shall there 
adduce instances in illustration of what is now affirmed. 

This happy characteristic of infancy, namely, the dis- 
proportionate mental enlargement of pleasures as compared 
with pains, attaches also to childhood, in a modified form, 
and it is observable until the period when the ripened 
powers of reflection, and a more ample knowledge of 
the conditions of human life, induce a new order of 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 31 

things, and turn the scale so that the ideal expansions of 
pleasure and pain come to be nearly equal. During child- 
hood, while the power to enlarge sufferings, by reflection, 
advances very slowly, and is scarcely more in the tenth 
year than it was in the third, the propensity and the power 
to expand enjoyments beyond the limit of animal gratifica- 
tion are continually increasing. Thus for example, a child 
of three years old creates for itself, from a stick, a stone, 
or a straw, a long continued and tranquil delight ; but a 
boy of ten or twelve, with materials quite as meagre in 
proportion to the pleasure drawn from them, though of a 
rather different sort, such as, a score or two of tiles, and a 
bundle of sticks ; or a hammer, a gimlet, and nails, will 
furnish for himself an intensity of happiness, and to which 
he will eagerly return, day after day, spending hours in an 
employment which derives ninety- nine parts out of the 
hundred of its power of fascination from what the mind 
adds to the tangible material of its pleasures. Such in- 
stances might be compared to those manufactures in which 
a pennyworth of iron, or of cotton, is, by the skill bestowed 
upon it, so enhanced in value as to be worth a guinea. 

It is not often before the seventeenth or eighteenth year 
that the balance begins to turn, and that the mind, revolving 
more upon itself, recollecting more, anticipating more, as 
it actually knows more, acquires the habit of expanding its 
pains in a proportion nearly as great as that in which it 
expands its pleasures. It is then that the high pitch of 
boyish joyousness is lowered, never again to stand steadily 
so high : and it is then that the deeper emotions and ener- 
gies of the soul are brought into play, by the stress of dis- 
quieting reflections. 

But childhood has few regrets, and still fewer anticipa- 
tions, nor any of an anxious sort ; nor does its open eye 
ever turn from the bright objects of the world around it, to 
penetrate the mists that shroud the future. The frivolous 



32 home education: 

and elastic gaiety of children, even when they may have 
been informed of some domestic calamity, must have 
attracted the attention of every one ; and although we do 
not wonder on such occasions, we cannot but admire that 
constitution of the mind which, during the period when 
there can be no responsibilities, and when there are no 
duties to be performed — when solicitude could be of no 
utility, spares the growing mind and body the burden of 
care. 

And yet we should not stop short with a sentiment of 
mere admiration in such instances, but should draw from 
this fact — that the Author of our nature has made so 
special a provision for securing the happiness of childhood, 
an inference of high practical importance, and it is this, 
namely, That what the Creator in his beneficence plainly 
intends, we are bound, by all means in our power, to pro- 
mote ; or, in other words, that it is nothing else than a 
religious duty to make the happiness of infancy and child- 
hood our main care in whatever relates to early education ; 
and this happiness, as every one knows, demands impera- 
tively, good government and moral training. 

This first law of education — sanctioned as it is by the 
clearly-expressed will of God, must be held to condemn at 
once every mode of instruction, and every principle of 
treatment, which in any degree trenches upon the gay 
felicity of early life ; and it must be said too, and on the 
same ground, that a stern and gloomy temper, as well as 
an irritable one, in a parent or teacher, is a decisive dis- 
qualification for the task of education : especially it should 
be remembered, that, while the unhappy temper of the 
master of a school bears upon the minds of children only 
occasionally and partially, and still leaves room for enough 
of thoughtless hilarity ; the very same temper in a parent, 
or a private instructor, cannot fail to exclude almost every 
ray of joy from the narrower precincts of home. A home, 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 33 

under such auspices, will be nothing better than a prison, 
whence the luckless inmates will wildly rush the moment it 
is possible for them to do so. An austere master is but 
as one to forty, sixty, or eighty ; but an austere father, or 
a crabbed mother, sourly loquacious, is as one to three, 
or five, or eight; and so large a proportion of the ingre- 
dient of bitterness will be more than enough to spoil 
happiness. 

The recollection of a thoroughly happy childhood (other 
advantages not wanting) is the very best preparation, moral 
and intellectual, with which to encounter the duties and 
cares of real life. A sunshine childhood is an auspicious 
inheritance, with which, as a fund, to commence trading in 
practical wisdom and active goodness. It is a great thing 
only to have known, by experience, that tranquil, temperate 
felicity is actually attainable on earth; and we should 
think so if we knew how many have pursued a reckless 
course, because — or chiefly because, they early learned to 
think of happiness as a chimera, and believed momentary 
gratifications to be the only substitute placed within the 
reach of man. Practicable happiness is much oftener 
wantonly thrown away, than really snatched from us ; but 
it is the most likely to be pursued, overtaken, and hus- 
banded by those who already, and during some consideiable 
period of their lives have been happy. To have known 
nothing but misery is the most portentous condition under 
which human nature can start on its course. 

Due care being taken to elicit the benevolent sensibili- 
ties, it is the happiest children who (natural dispositions 
allowed for) will be the most sympathetic, and the most 
ready to forego personal gratifications for the relief of the 
wants of others. The substantial principles, or habits of 
feeling, whence, in after life, a course of self-denying be- 
neficence should take its rise, are best bottomed upon the 
personal experience of much felicity ; and if angels aro 



34 home education: 

more benevolent than men, it is, we may believe, because 
they are themselves conversant with the highest hap- 
piness. 

Continued gloom and depression, during childhood and 
youth, debilitate as well the body as the mind ; and what- 
ever enfeebles the constitution vitiates it. Under the 
irritation, or the melancholy, that attend harsh treatment 
and a want of natural enjoyments, the animal secretions 
receive a poison which breaks out in the temper, and con- 
stitutes, at length, malignant character. It is in the sun- 
shine literally, and in the sunshine metaphorically, that 
the human body and mind reach their blooming perfection. 

I am far from intending to deny that, in particular instan- 
ces, virtue and constancy have been learned in the school 
of early adversity ; or that the worst of all influences — 
cruel treatment, may not, in rare cases, have favoured the 
development of the best dispositions. But it can never 
be affirmed that any such desirable consequences follow as 
the ordinary effects of such causes : on the contrary, it is 
certain that, with very infrequent exceptions, a sorrowful 
childhood generates a morbid incertitude of mind, an 
irresolution and a sensitiveness, very likely to yield to the 
first strong temptations. There is a timidity and reserve, 
the fruit of misfortune, or of unkindness, which sets the 
judgment wrong, and impairs, in an equal degree, the 
proper ingenuousness of youth, and the force of native 
good sense ; leaving the mind too little defended against 
the inducements to a course of meanness and hypocrisy. 
Under unpropitious and unjoyous circumstances in early 
life, intelligence passes off toward cunning ; obstinacy 
takes the place of firmness and of conscientiousness ; reck- 
lessness supplants courage ; and worst of all, or, as the 
completion of all, a cold selfishness settles down upon the 
entire character. It is in this way, so often, that, among 
the lowest classes, and the wretched, a ferocity is engen- 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 35 

dered to which no crimes can be startling. And generally 
it may be said, that, if more sensibility is found in the 
middle and upper than in the lower ranks of society, it is 
because, by the former, fewer ills have been endured 
in childhood, and a more tranquil felicity has been en- 
joyed. 

If particular and remarkable cases of depraved disposi- 
tions, especially when of the malign sort, were examined, 
we should only need to be told the history of the early life 
of the individual, and should often find the reason of this 
perversion to have been, not so much an original fault of 
temperament, or gross errors of management, as simply the 
want of felicity in childhood. And it is certain that many 
a one — the darling of fortune and the pet of maternal fond- 
ness, has, through the mere whims of a crotched temper, 
though perhaps a fond one, been totally deprived of the 
natural joyousness of childhood. 

To return to our proper subject, I must express the 
belief that the influence of a gaily happy childhood upon 
the development of the intellectual faculties is far more 
direct than has often been considered. That which is so 
important to the vigour and the practical efficiency of the 
understanding, namely, the symmetry of the mind, and the 
subserviency of subordinate faculties to those that ought to 
bear sway, depends very much, not to say absolutely, 
upon the undisturbed expansion of the several powers in 
early life. But it is certain that any kind of suffering, or 
an habitual melancholy, or a perpetual irritation, operates 
at once to repress some, and to force others of the mental 
energies ; especially giving undue influence to certain 
emotions which should not at all bear upon the mind until 
the judgment is ripened ; while it dissipates those gentle 
and pleasurable sentiments from which alone intellectual 
excitements should be drawn. 

Besides, as depression of any sort impairs the animal 



36 HOME EDUCATIONS 

energy, and disturbs the digestive function, the injury never 
fails to reach the brain, which presently betrays the confu- 
sion that has taken place in the system. Hence results a 
general indistinctness of mental apprehension, favouring 
the formation of distorted notions, which cling to the mind 
ever after, in the form of constitutional prejudices. Hence 
too a general indisposition to think, and a perverse disin- 
clination to listen to reason. How common is it to meet 
with sickly and irritable minds that spring up in opposition 
to any calm statement of facts, with a sort of instinctive 
resentment or trepidation, as if fearing to be entrapped by 
plain truth. Such a state of mind may, as I think, most 
often be traced to circumstances of early life, which were 
of a kind to call up the principle of self-defence, long 
before reason had been developed. The child, harshly 01 
capriciously treated, had learned to thrust and to parry, be- 
fore it had learned to think and judge. But nothing, in intel- 
lectual training, can be more important than that the reason- 
ing power should have come fully into play, and should have 
acquired considerable firmness and vigour, before the time 
when it is likely to be exposed to the onset of vehement 
motives. So to preserve the reason from strong influ- 
ences of any sort, in early life, might be termed the 
critical principle of education. Let, then, children, 
and young persons, enjoy a gay and tranquil happiness, to 
the latest period possible, with the very intention of leav- 
ing reason to reach its adult proportions unwarped. 

We have already said that the office of parental care is 
not to create happiness for children ; but only to preserve 
from disturbance that spontaneous happiness which is the 
gift of nature. Now this disturbance is likely to arise, in 
the first place, from ill health ; and who does not know 
that neither the most judicious treatment, nor the most fa- 
vourable external circumstances, will certainly avail to 
avert occasional suffering, or even constitutional and con- 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 37 

tinucd sickness ? Cut this allowed, it may unquestionably 
be affirmed that, in the large majority of instances, a state 
of general ill health during childhood, arises from causes 
which, if parents have but the requisite good sense, may easi- 
ly be averted. Foolish indulgences, and a pernicious pam- 
pering of the appetites ; or an undue caution, and excessive 
delicacy of treatment ; or an ignorant remissness ; or some- 
times the carrying out of some absurd and extravagant 
physical doctrine ; or an ambitious and cruel exaction of 
tasks ; — these, or such like, are the causes or the occasions 
of nine-tenths of all the ill health under which children and 
young persons labour ; nor should I hesitate to leave even 
a smaller proportion to those causes over which we can 
have no control. 

As it is true that children will be happy unless prevented 
from being so by external influences, so is it true that (a 
few cases excepted) they will be robust, or at least, ordin- 
arily well, unless grossly mismanaged or neglected. To 
be convinced of this, we need only observe what an ac- 
cumulation of unfavourable circumstances children will re- 
sist, and yet be healthy, so long as they enjoy — plenty of 
light, plenty of air, and plenty of the very plainest nutri- 
tious food. In the constant possession of these three prime 
elements of animal well-being, every thing else which, in 
our prison nurseries, is believed, or is actually found to be 
important, may be dispensed with: — cleanliness may be 
foregone; judicious treatment may be foregone; solicitude 
about wet, and cold, and heat may be laid aside : only af- 
ford to the human animal — light — air — and as much whole- 
some food as he really desires, and you need think no more 
about him; at least so far as the body is concerned, all 
is nearly as well as it can be. But the moment when the 
child of nature is consigned to the imprisonment of a car- 
peted nursery, and is assiduously cared for in some points, 
he must be equally cared for in. all. Mischief comes from 
4 



38 " HOME EDUCATION i 

the doing by halves that which a refined method of treat-" 
ment requires to be fully and consistently attended to'. 

An ill understood and a capriciously administered artifi- 
cial system of physical treatment, displays its consequen- 
ces in a sad variety of symptoms ; such are the opaque un- 
coloured complexion uniformly sallow, or the alternating 
flush and pallidness of the cheek ; the flaccid muscular sub- 
stance — hardly to be called substance ; the yielding spine* 
the dyspeptic caprices of the appetite ; the wayward and 
fretting temper, and the confused and inapplicable mind; 
These are the ills, so often meeting the eye, which, spring- 
ing from sheer want of common discretion in the early 
treatment of children, are, immediately and remotely, the 
causes of a very large proportion of all the sufferings and 
sorrows that oppress humanity in civilized communities. 

In thinking then of a happy domestic system, nothing 
less can be assumed than that there is, on the part of the 
mother, intelligence and good sense enough to secure for a 
family (under ordinary circumstances) a fair degree of 
health and animal well-being. Or to exclude objections, 
we must suppose that a family is so managed, in what re- 
lates to the body, as that as much health is actually enjoy- 
ed as the very same children — or children endowed with 
precisely the same amount of constitutional vigour, would 
have possessed had they been born and reared in a well- 
managed cottage by the road-side. 

Next to ill health, it is ill temper that most Often invades 
and dissipates the natural happiness of childhood ; — ill tem- 
per ordinarily arising from obvious, or from latent ill health. 
But it would only be favouring a dangerous error to attempt 
to treat the copious and difficult subject of tempee, apart 
from those moral and religious principles which, whatever 
may be the immediate occasion of unhappy dispositions, 
must constitute the basis of a remedial discipline. 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 39 

Instead of injuring subjects so momentous by a hasty 
and imperfect treatment of them, I will assume that they 
hold, as they ought, the first place in the minds of parents; 
and that our Ideal Home is blessed with the sunshine of 
piety, and that it enjoys moral, as well as animal health. 

There are however some incidental subjects, more or 
less nearly connected with the moral condition of a family, 
and at the same time having a direct relation either to the 
principles, or to the practices of Intellectual culture. 
To these I shall briefly advert, before we enter upon the 
detail of our methods of instruction. 

In the first place then it may be suggested, that, with 
due discretion, as to the mode and the times, children who 
are actually happy, or are furnished with all the means for 
being so, may be reminded of the felicity of their position; 
and especially as compared with that of too many around 
them. A little in this way may be enough ; and it is bet- 
ter to attempt nothing, than to run into the fault of turning 
the mind much in upon itself; or of generating a musing 
hypochondriac sensitiveness, the fruit of which is sure to 
be, not a grateful cheerful sentiment of complacency in 
our own lot, but a wistful repining thought of the imagined 
happiness of others. 

This error carefully avoided, just so much may be said 
as may serve to awaken a consciousness of the felicity ac- 
tually enjoyed, and especially on occasions when some in- 
dulgence is to be foregone, or some restriction is to be as- 
sented to ; and moreover, if a religious feeling pervades, as 
it ought, a family, and if a frequent reference is made to 
the divine goodness, as the source of every enjoyment, the 
most auspicious sentiments may be generated in the hearts 
of children by a grateful recognition (informal in phrase 
and mode) of the family happiness, as the gift of God. 

Moreover, it is well that children should fully feel and 



40 HOME EDUCATION '. 

know, not merely that their parents seriously intend their 
welfare, but that they are inclined to do everything that is 
wise and practicable, to promote their mere enjoyments, 
and to procure for them every incidental pleasure which 
ought to be wished for. This conviction, settled in the 
minds of children — a conviction strengthened and renewed 
by frequent proofs, operates powerfully in enabling parents 
to carry forward those measures of government which may 
demand silent and implicit submission. Where an animat- 
ed parental love, showing itself in the promotion of enjoy- 
ments — mere enjoyments, actually exists, and where it is 
combined with uniform firmness, and self-control, the 
parental authority reaches its highest pitch ; and in fact is 
as great as can be needed for affecting any purposes that 
are really important. Apart from this persuasion of the 
prompt and gratuitous beneficence of parents, subordina- 
tion may be perfect to the eye, but it is likely to be me- 
chanical and bodily ; — hearts are not in subjection. 

It may seem to some readers useless, or even worse, to 
advert to those adventitious circumstances, favouring a do- 
mestic system of education, which it is scarcely, or per- 
haps not at all, in the power of parents to command. But I 
feel warranted in referring to some points of this sort, on 
the ground that, as the plan of home education is most 
likely to be adopted by those who are actually in the enjoy- 
ment of such advantages, whether by the gift of nature or 
fortune, it may be of some real service to direct their at- 
tention to the special means and prerogatives that are at 
their command, with a view to the more diligent improve- 
ment of them. Who has not often grieved to see the choic- 
est opportunities overlooked, or very imperfectly improved 
— a price put into the hand for the purchase of the rarest 
happiness, but no consciousness of the power it confers ! 

Now among such natural, and yet adventitious advanta- 
ges, highly to be prized where possessed, is, first— -a tran-» 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 41 

quil, yet animated family temperament, as distinguished 
from mere health, and which is equally removed, on the 
one hand, from sluggish immobility, or hebetude ; and on 
the other, from a tremulous and flashing sensitiveness, or 
feverish excitability. 

And here it is but candid to apprize the reader that not a 
few of the methods of culture which are to be specified in 
the following chapters would scarcely be found practicable 
in a family of so inert a constitution as that an active intel- 
lectual taste could not be excited among them. Nor again, 
would some of these same methods (or any of them pursued 
to the fullest extent) be quite free from hazard in the case 
of children unusually sensitive and enthusiastic. But there 
is, in some families, and in more than a few, an equable 
buoyancy of the animal spirits — a force at hand, converti- 
ble, in a moment, either to study or to play, and which im- 
parts freedom and zest, indifferently, to every sort of occu- 
pation, in doors and out of doors. This is the choice tem- 
perament for a family intended to be trained at home ; and 
it will render every method of improvement at once easy, 
delightful, and successful: and more to be desired is such 
a tranquil vividness of the bodily and mental faculties, than 
the rare and perilous endowments of genius. Certainly 
the system advanced in this volume, far from being of a 
sort that could be realized only among prodigies of intelli- 
gence, demands nothing more than a healthful alertness of 
mind. 

As to children, immoveably torpid — let them be sent to 
Bchool, where they will find the only sort of impulse to 
which the vis inertise of their minds is likely to yield. 
And, on the other side, and notwithstanding the remon- 
strances of maternal tenderness, the same course, proba- 
bly, had better be pursued with children who are in a high 
degree morbidly sensitive ; for the mere circumstance of 
living in a crowd — the withdrawment of the mind from it- 

4* 



42 home education: 

self, and the absence of petting, will tend to corroborate as 
well the body as the mind. 

We ought by no means to affirm wealth to be essential 
either to family happiness, or to intellectual advancement : 
both may and do consist, with the cares and restraints that 
attach to a bare competency; and if no ostentation is to be 
provided for, and no indulgences to be supported, less than 
an ample income will suffice for carrying into effect a hap- 
py, and even an elaborate system of home education. In 
truth, those very habits of privacy, and that adherence to 
rule and principle which are rendered necessary by a limited 
fortune, will be favourable, rather than otherwise, to the 
prosperous issue of such a system. 

There is, however, a limit that is not to be passed : nor 
can it well be imagined that the minds and tastes of chil- 
dren can receive necessary attention in a home invaded by 
distracting cares, or liable to privations such as divert the 
thoughts from intellectual pursuits, and render any regard 
to elegance a mockery. A family, keeping the culture of 
the mind prominently in view, ought to command, uncon- 
sciously, and without visible restraint, the ordinary comforts 
of life, and a measure too of its embellishments. 

In fact, some of the methods recommended in the follow- 
ing chapters imply rather more than a scanty sufficiency 
of pecuniary means ; and it will be obvious, as we pro- 
ceed, that there are few processes of instruction which 
may not be advantageously extended or refined by the 
aids which an ample income supplies. And yet, true as 
this is, some signal instances ought not to be forgotten in 
which, by extraordinary energy on the part of parents who 
were contending from day to day with the severest adver- 
sity, and sustaining extreme privations, families, home 
taught, have received no mean degree of mental culture. 
But such instances are exceptive ; and they imply, on 
the part of parents, a moral and an intellectual great- 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 43 

ness as rare, almost, as any qualities that illustrate human 
nature. 

Again : I know not how to avoid affirming the peculiar 
desirableness of a country residence, as the scene of 
home education. I would, indeed, be very far from seem- 
ing to imply that domestic training may not be efficiently 
carried on by families that pass the year in the heart of 
cities, and that behold the fair face of nature only in a 
holiday week or month. Nevertheless this being granted, 
and every thing conceded to, which can fairly be advanced 
on behalf of a city life, as abounding with means of im- 
provement, and with various excitements, I must avow a 
very decided opinion in favour, on the whole, of a rural 
abode for a home-taught family. This idea, with all its 
delightful circumstances, is, in fact, always before me in 
describing, as well the habits of life, as the methods of in- 
struction, proper to home education. The picture in my 
view is that of an insulated country-house, with its internal 
comfort and frugal elegance, its garden of sweets, and of 
gay, perennial enjoyments, its ample gravelled spaces for 
all purposes of homestead exercise and diversion ; and its 
verdant silent vicinage of arable and pasture, of heath and 
hill, of woodland, and of river-side meadow. It is on such 
a spot, as I think, that the most desirable goods of life 
may the most easily be secured, and may be enjoyed with 
an unspent relish. It is there that love, order, and intelli- 
gence, may keep company, apart from those factitious ex- 
citements which are followed by listlessness, and that are 
always demanding a something more intense ; while the 
tastes formed in a country life have this invariable charac- 
teristic, that, from year to year, they are satisfied with less 
and less excitement, and are more and more content with 
their proper objects. 

It is in the country, and, as it seems to me, there only, 



44 home education: 

that the minds of children may be kept in a state of health- 
ful activity, without a too frequent recurrence to books ; 
and it is there best, if not exclusively, that a wide and co- 
pious acquaintance with the kingdoms of nature may be 
made by the means of ocular and conversational instruc- 
tion, such as shall convey a fund of various information, 
apart from task-work and lesson-learning. A full half, or 
more, of all that ought to be learned in early life, may be 
learned out of doors, by country-bred children ; and how 
incalculable is the advantage of such a method, in respect 
both of the mind and of the body ! 

I am tempted to pursue this subject a little further, as 
well because a rural domestic economy is, by the most 
agreeable associations, connected in my own mind with 
the processes of education, as because I indulge the hope 
of actually inducing some parents, who may have it in their 
power to choose their own course, to transplant their 
young families from cities to the country, there to find (at 
the price, it is true, of certain specific advantages) robust 
and rosy health, natural gaiety, purity of sentiment, and the 
invaluable habit of looking to the mind's own elasticity, 
day after day, for its happiness. 

Let it be considered by those who may be balancing 
between a town and country life, as the fittest for carrying 
on home education, that, as it is the very purpose, as well 
as the prerogative, of this mode of culture, to render the 
processes of instruction more elaborate, more intimate, 
and more intellectual, than those which are pursued in 
schools, there will be needed a proportionate counterpoise 
of animal exhilaration, to secure the well-being of the body, 
while the mind is brought into the fullest play. The fresh 
vigour of health must be so much the more cared for, 
as the mind is more deeply wrought upon, and as the 
sensibilities of the soul, and its more delicate emotions are 
cherished. 






FAMILY HAPPINESS. 45 

At school, the mechanical development of the mind by 
task-work, and the stimulants of the class, are well enough 
counterbalanced by the boisterous sports of the play- 
ground ; and if the mind be overstrained for an hour or 
two under the master's hand, it soon gets its collapse in 
the rude mirth that follows the outburst from the school 
door ; and with this counteraction, if there be but a plenti- 
ful table, it is of small importance whether the air be a lit- 
tle more or less pure. The difference, in general health, 
between town and country schools is perhaps not very 
remarkable ; but the difference in comparing town and 
country families would, I think, make itself apparent in a 
striking manner. 

Furthermore : I have stated the leading principle of 
home education to be — late development ; but in relation 
to this very principle, a country life is peculiarly important, 
first, because it affords the most abundant and various 
means for keeping the mind in activity before the period 
arrives when the reasoning faculties are to be arduously 
exercised ; and secondly, because a hardy, out-of-doors 
life, becomes eminently desirable after the season of de- 
velopment has come on, and this, not only, as I have al- 
ready said, for securing the general health, but specifically 
for keeping alive that fresh and natural good sense which 
a merely studious and abstracted course always impairs, 
or totally dissipates. The most powerful understandings 
become more o less enfeebled and perverted by a few 
years' seclusion in a closet, with a stove temperature, and 
lamp-light. There is needed more than a little rough, 
farmer-like, daily occupation abroad, to keep the student 
clear of the pedant ; and assuredly it is not an hour's pac- 
ing up and down a college-walk that suffices for this pur- 
pose. One would fain, in conducting a thoroughly intel- 
lectual education, counteract the debilitating effects of stu- 
dious habits, so as should preclude the mortifying compa- 



46 HOME EDUCATION 



ar. 



rison, commonly made between the accomplished scholar, 
and the man of business, in whatever does not involve 
mere erudition. One would gladly spare a young man the 
pungent shame which many have felt — conscious as they 
may have been of high attainments, and yet compelled to 
feel that, in the broad and open world, no one has thought 
their opinions worth listening to a moment, in relation to 
the weighty interests of common life. And in such instan- 
ces, what is felt to be wanting, is not so much the requisite 
information on the point in question, as a want of that intu- 
ition which seizes a notion in the concrete — that is to say 
in its practical form ; instead of groping about for it in the 
region of the abstract, where it has broken itself off from 
the actual concernments of mankind. 

Again : I am really at a loss to know by what means, 
except those afforded so richly in a country life, the tastes 
and the imaginative sentiments, intimately connected as 
they are, as well with the moral as the rational faculties, 
may be formed and refined. In the country, the proper 
objects of these tastes stand every day before the eyes ; 
and so the mind, in its plastic state, is cast into the mould 
of nature ; and the genuine elements of poetic feeling, and 
of lofty sentiment, are wrought into the soul, instead of 
being taught as lessons. But in cities, the same objects, 
when occasionally presented, are looked at as if making up 
an exhibition : — they are seen for an hour, and pass away. 
Art and its wonders of imitation are what principally 
occupy the thoughts and modify the tastes ; these tastes 
therefore are, from the first, factitious, nor are they likely 
ever to become otherwise. In the country, and under judi- 
cious culture, although art and its myteries of imitation 
may in due time be learned and practised, it is nature that 
is intimately known and relished. The relative merits of 
nature and art, if such a phrase may be allowed, can hard- 
ly be understood except by those who have enjoyed long 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 47 

and delightful acquaintance with the former, before they 
came to know any thing of the latter. 

And may it not be said that England (I do not mean ex- 
clusively of Scotland and Ireland) is the country, of all the 
world, in which rural life, taking the year round, is the most 
delightful, and best bears comparison, on the whole, with a 
town life ; and in which, of course, home education may 
be carried on with the highest advantage? Surely there is 
not a country on behalf of which it could be pretended that 
it should be chosen rather than England, as the favoured 
home of rural enjoyment, graced by intelligence, and secur- 
ed by firm domestic habits, and the quiet virtues. 

The superiority of England, in this respect, might fairly 
be established, by a mere reference to the fact (and I be- 
lieve it is a fact) that in this country a larger proportion of 
those who are free to choose their place of abode and their 
mode of life, live remote from cities, than in any other 
country : for it seems a sound inference that the land in 
which a country life is actually resorted to by a large pro- 
portion of those who can follow their own tastes (besides 
being the object of desire to multitudes who cannot do so) 
does really afford the means of rural enjoyment, in a higher 
degree than any other. The people of England, especially 
the moderately opulent, fly from towns and cities, not be- 
cause the cities and towns of England are peculiarly unde- 
sirable, or are at all deficient in comfort ; but because the 
country is peculiarly attractive. As the notion of home is 
English, and the word is one which is hardly to be render- 
ed into any other language, so does the term ordinarily 
carry with it the idea of the insulation, the independence, 
and the quiet delights of a country residence. It is quite 
true, for example, that the house of a bachelor may be call- 
ed his home ; nevertheless, who ever hears the word with- 
out thinking of a family? And thus too, although a town 



48 HOME EDUCATION I 

house be a home, a country house is a home emphatically* 
or in the most genuine sense. 

On this favourite subject I must yet claim the reader's 
indulgence awhile. As the term — home education brings 
with it, in my mind at least, the idea of rural life, so does 
the complex idea of sweet, tranquil, healthful enjoyment, 
varied, but not invaded, by the changing seasons, demand 
the scene to be laid in England, rather than in any other 
country of Europe, or of the world. — Home education, 
then, taking the phrase as carrying with it whatever can 
give it the highest possible advantage, is — The domestic 
system of an English country house. 

Our climate, taking the year round, has been admitted to 
be more favourable to out-of-door occupations and plea- 
sures than any other of Europe. It is in England, a week 
or two excepted, that any one who is in health may pass, 
without fear, and without change of dress, from the draw- 
ing-room, or the study, to the garden and the fields ; and 
a family, not used to be foolishly cooped up in rough 
weather, may go abroad and take their sports as many 
days, or nearly so, between October and April, as between 
April and October ; yet this is a circumstance of incal- 
culable advantage in relation to the practices of home 
education. 

England too, and this is a recommendation by no means 
trivial in its bearing upon our immediate subject, is emi- 
nently the land of the picturesque. Although what is grand 
or romantic is confined to a few districts, what is deli- 
ciously beautiful, and that which invites the pencil, and 
feeds the taste, presents itself in every county. Few 
countries, if any in the world, are so thickly set with points 
of view, such as the landscape painter stops to notice ; and 
those who would establish themselves in the rural mode, 
with a view to the health and enjoyments of a family, may 
take their course in almost any direction, and find spots 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 49 

where nothing which external circumstances can supply 
will be wanting to secure the sweet felicity of a domestic 
country life. 

It is in England, as matter of fact* more than in any 
other country of Europe, that a genuine taste for the beau- 
ties of nature has formed itself, so as to become a perma- 
nent and prominent feature of the national character. It 
is among ourselves that a keen relish for simple and 
natural pleasures, as distinguished from amusements and 
excitements, so prevails as to influence the national man- 
ners in all classes. But this is the very feeling — this 
preference of natural pleasures to excitements and dis- 
sipation, which it is incalculably important to cherish in 
the minds of young persons. Just so long as such a 
preference is decisive and paramount in the character, 
every thing favourable may be hoped for :- — the moment 
the tastes take the other turn, our means of influence 
are reduced almost to the lowest point ; nor can we 
reckon, any more, upon successfully carrying forward 
either intellectual or moral culture. For these strong 
reasons therefore, England must be accounted the coun- 
try in which home education may the best be put in 
practice ; and the country where the modes of life it 
demands, are already consonant with the settled habits 
and tastes of the largest and soundest portion of the 
people. 

At the present time, by the diffusion of knowledge, 
and the facilities of intercourse, the English yeoman and 
country gentleman have severally risen very far above the 
level occupied by their immediate predecessors. Good 
taste, better morals, and a liberal acquaintance with sci- 
ence, have taken the place of rude sensuality and igno- 
rance : and especially does the desire to secure a still 
better education for their children, belong to the classes we 
are speaking of. 

5 



60 HOME education: 

And is it not within the thousands of rural homes* 
adorning the road sides of England, — from the man- 
sion of the noble, to the ornate cottage, and the com- 
fortable farm-house, that are to be found the virtues 
and graces of woman 1 As for those who can breathe 
only in the atmosphere of cities, — who live for plea- 
sure, — whose home is abroad, and whose most serious 
business is amusement — these have no nationality ; they 
form a class found in all countries, and differing hardly 
by a shade, one from another. But if we are thinking 
of female excellence and loveliness, and if we turn, as 
we have reason to do, to England to find both united 
—it is to the country we must look for our chosen 
specimens ; it is among those who, whether as wives or 
daughters, not barely endure the seclusion of a country 
life, but enjoy it, enliven it, and make themselves there 
the loved dispensers of comfort and happiness to their 
circles. 

There may be many whose early recollections being 
altogether of another sort, will not be ready to attach 
any such importance as the writer does, to a country 
life, for a home-trained family. I have no anxiety to 
bring over to my own way of thinking, on this subject, 
those who entertain a contrary opinion ; but I could not, 
with comfort to myself, advance in the prosecution of 
my task, without distinctly setting forth that idea of the 
externals of a happy home which is present to my own 
thoughts, and which is, more or less, involved in every 
method of instruction hereafter to be spoken of. I 
well know that many things of some importance must 
be foregone by living in the heart of the country ; and 
it is very true that certain valuable means of improve- 
ment are only to be met with in cities ; nevertheless I 
am compelled to regard all such advantages as of infe- 



FAMILY HAPPINESS. 51 

rior consequence if they are to be secured only by the re- 
linquishment of the solid benefits above alluded to ; and 
in fact the reader will perceive, throughout this work, that 
the writer has before him, always, — rural scenery, rural 
pastimes, rural tastes, and the ample spaces, and the 
natural objects that surround a country home. 



CHAPTER III. 

FAMILY LOVE AND ORDER. 

Again I request the reader to bear in mind, that, if I 
advert, in this volume, to subjects properly belonging to 
moral and religious treatment, I do not profess either to 
advance the principles on which such treatment should 
rest, or to illustrate the application of them. 

And yet something must be said with the view of setting 
before the reader that idea of the domestic system which is 
present to my own mind, and which I consider as insepa- 
rably connected with the processes and the exercises of 
intellectual culture. Fully to develop the mental faculties 
apart from family felicity — apart from pure enjoyments — 
apart from love, and subordination, is what I cannot so much 
as conceive of as practicable ; nor is there an exercise so 
abstruse as that I can imagine it to be prosperously con- 
ducted by the stern and cold-hearted teacher of a depressed 
and reluctant learner. 

The words Love and Order, although not synonymous, 
are absolutely inseparable in relation to the domestic sys-» 
tem. At school, no doubt, there may be order where there 
is little or no love ; but it is frightful to think of a home 
of which the same might be said. And if, in a family, 
we must not look for order without love, so neither can love 
exist, or be preserved, without order : and by Order, I 
mean, absolute government, and perfect obedience 



LOVE AND ORDER. 53 

If there be not, in the natural dispositions of parents and 
children, enough kindly warmth of feeling to effect implicit 
obedience by the means of the gentle affections, and with- 
out frequent recurrence to measures of severity, home 
education had better not be attempted. Children may be 
governed at school by motives of fear, without entirely de- 
praving their sentiments ; because school is not their all ; 
and they have still a home, and a sphere of love to think of. 
But to rule them in any such way at home itself, is to wind 
out of their hearts, by a slow but certain process, every 
root and fibre of the affections ; nor will it fail to render 
them, in the end, murky, obdurate, crafty, selfish, and ma- 
lign. In mere mercy let children be sent to school, who 
must be so schooled if kept at home. 

It can hardly be necessary to say, that this natural 
warmth of affection, which we name as requisite to the 
conduct of home education, is not that anxious sensitive 
fondness, existing chiefly on the parent's side, which, to be 
made any use of, must be perpetually talked of, and point- 
ed at, and adduced, in support of the trembling parental 
authority. What is wanted, is not a sentiment worn, 
and hackneyed, and fretted, until it has become little else 
than a confused feeling of suspicion, weariness, and dis-? 
taste ; it is not a spring that has no force, except when it is 
strained ; or a fire that has neither sparks nor warmth, ex- 
cept so long as it is blown. 

There is truth in the common observation, that parental 
affection is a much stronger feeling than the reciprocal affec^ 
tion of children toward their parents ; and yet if it be so, 
we need not be disquieted so long as it is found to be also 
true, that, when parental love is sustained by energy and 
intelligence, it generates a sentiment in the bosoms of chil- 
dren strong enough to bear all the stress that ought to be 
laid upon it, and which we may securely confide in for car- 
rying any measures of moral or intellectual discipline, 

5* 



54 home education: 

Children, naturally affectionate, in a fair degree, and who 
live always in the sunshine of a wise and vigorous parental 
love, will rarely, if ever, fail to render such a return of the 
devotion of their hearts as shall not merely make both par- 
ties happy, but such as shall support a firm domestic 
government, without any visible effort, or means of intimi- 
dation. 

And let it be allowed to me to add, that, if a loving tem- 
per in parents and children be requisite for effecting the 
purposes of home education, hardly less can be affirmed of 
the conjugal affection. In a family not blessed with this 
first element of felicity, every difficulty of the domestic 
system of training is vastly enhanced, or is rendered in- 
superable. There can be no need the truism, that the un- 
disguised dissonance of parents is totally incompatible 
with methods of culture, and with a general course such as 
we have now in view. But there is even a coldness and 
formality sometimes subsisting between husband and wife, 
which will too much chill the general temperature of the 
house, and take effect upon the dispositions of children, 
who will either become, in like nanner, frigid and motion- 
less ; or attach themselves, with the pernicious feelings of 
partizans, to the one parent, or to the other. In relation to 
this subject we must repeat the aphorism, that, happiness 
is the first principle of home education. 

There is, however, something more to be noted in rela- 
tion to the influence of conjugal affection upon the disposi- 
tions and behavour of children ; for let it be remembered, 
and we are now speaking especially of the maternal autho- 
thority, which it is so desirable to raise to the highest pitch, 
that, when conjugal love is warm and uniform, a mother 
stands invested, in the eyes of her children, with a power 
combining an indirect reverence of their father, who ap- 
pears only to sustain the maternal rule, with the direct ra- 
diance of her own gentle fondness. And it is a constant 



LOVE AND ORDER. 55 

law of human nature, that complex sentiments, such as the 
one here spoken of possess far more force than belongs to 
the sum of the elements of which they are composed, when 
existing apart. For example ; the feeling in the minds of 
children which secures their devoted obedience to a mo- 
ther, who is seen to be sustained by a father's constant and 
cordial concurrence, far exceeds in practical efficacy the 
amount of regard separately paid to the authority of the fa- 
ther and the mother, when, from an unhappy want of affec- 
tion, the two parents are always thought of by their chil- 
dren apart. 

And here, may the hint be listened to, that, among the 
reasons which may induce parents to adopt the practice of 
home education, this motive might have its weight, that, 
if the pre-requisites of conjugal affection already exist, 
namely, worth and purity of intention in both parties, the 
presence of children at home, and the need thence felt 
to arise of forbearance and tenderness, will powerfully 
tend to corroborate the very feeling which is found to be so 
important, and to preserve it from shocks and disgusts. 
Those whose tempers are actually under the control of 
good sense and virtuous principles, may often have occa- 
sion to rejoice in finding themselves borne along in the 
path of happiness, by subsidiary motives, when more direct 
sentiments happen to be in a languid state. 

Moreover, it should not be forgotten, that young persons 
who, under the paternal roof, have seen, and have lived in 
the sunshine of their parents' conjugal felicity, will be the 
more likely to secure it for themselves. It is true, that a 
judicious mother does not talk to her daughters of their 
own future matrimonial happiness ; but, without this, it 
will be enough, if they see her every day, beloved and hap- 
py ; for they will then, at least, be provided with a con- 
vincing contradiction of the immoral doctrine, that conjugal 
felicity is a romantic dream, never realized in common 



56 home education: 

life. No opinion can be of more pernicious influence 
than this ; and those parents must be accounted to have 
done much for their children, of both sexes, who, not by 
words, but in fact, have proved such a doctrine to be false. 

There are however many degrees of affection, whether 
conjugal or parental ; and, it may be said, that, where 
other requisites are not wanting, the success of a system 
of domestic culture will bear proportion to the intensity of 
these feelings. 

There is a parental affection, rational and steady, which 
may be quite sufficient to secure a consistent regard to the 
welfare of a family ; and powerful enough to sustain the la- 
bours and self-denials involved in conducting an educa- 
tional course. But there is an affection going very far be- 
yond any such passive, measured love. There is a love of 
offspring that knows no restrictive reasons ; that extends to 
any length of personal suffering or toil ; a feeling of abso- 
lute self-renunciation, whenever the interests of children in- 
volve a compromise of the comfort or tastes of the parent. 
There is a love of children in which self-love is drowned ; 
a love, which when combined with intelligence and firm- 
ness, sees through, and casts aside, every pretext of 
personal gratification, and steadily pursues the highest and 
most remote welfare of its object, with the determination 
at once of an animal instinct, and of a well-considered, ra- 
tional purpose. There is a species of love, not liable to 
be worn by time, or slackened, as from year to year, chil- 
dren become less and less dependant upon parental care : 
— it is a feeling which possesses the energy of the most 
vehement passions, along with the calmness and appliancy 
of the gentlest affections ; a feeling purged, as completely 
as any human sentiment can be, of the grossness of earth; 
and which seems to have been conferred upon human na- 
ture as a sample of emotion proper to a higher sphere. 
This kind of parental love, balanced by vigorous good 



LOVE AND ORDER. 57 

sense, clears all difficulties in education, and almost super- 
sedes particular plans or advices. Whatever system may 
be adopted, in such a case, the routine of culture and in- 
struction moves on with a noiseless and prosperous 
celerity, and especially so, if, to the warm affection which 
we are now supposing, and to the steady purpose and the 
tact which should guide it, there be added a certain natural 
delight in teaching, such as renders the labours of instruc- 
tion pleasures, in fact. 

On many occasions, our tastes carry us forward with 
ease in the discharge of difficult duties, where higher prin- 
ciples might leave us flagging ; and it is so especially in 
the business of education. To impart knowledge is, to 
some, an enjoyment that never tires. But this teaching 
taste, it must be confessed, is a gift of nature ; nor is its 
place to be supplied, either by habit, or by principle, except 
in an imperfect degree. Let then those who are con- 
scious of being thus endowed, and whose warmth of heart 
and energy of understanding are sustained by a zest for 
tuition — let such be animated to improve and exert a talent 
that cannot fail to convey the very highest benefits, intel- 
lectual and moral, which one human being can receive from 
another. 

An affectionate temperament, especially if it belong to 
both parents, is usually hereditary ; and when so, the re- 
ciprocal sentiment supplies all that can be wished for in 
rendering a family happy, and the processes of culture pros- 
perous. Or even if, in a numerous family, one may be 
found wanting in natural tenderness or sensibility, the in- 
fluence of example, and the constant breathing of a kindly 
atmosphere, is likely, with skilful management of the in- 
dividual temper, to supply, in good measure, what is lack- 
ing : thus the cold nature will grow warm, amid the radia- 
tion of love from all sides ; and if it never become fervent, 
will at least never congeal. 



58 HOME EUDCATION : 

Yet warm-hearted parents will not forget that the ascend- 
ing love is, as we have said, less than the descending. 
The wide world, with its novelties, and the boundless mys- 
terious futurity, exert an unspent influence over the minds 
of young persons, and cannot but divert a little their affec- 
tions from their parents, however fondly and sincerely they 
may be loved. Whereas, with those who have reached the 
middle stage of life, the glitter of the world has been seen 
through, and its promise has been brought to the proof, 
and has so far failed in the performance, that the mind has 
turned toward the circle of the domestic affections, as a so- 
lace. But no such disabusing of the imagination by ex- 
perience, has had place with children ; and parents must 
remember that, while their own hopes and affections are 
converging more and more upon a focus, those of their 
children are all radiating through infinite space. 

It may not be so easy to bear, with equanimity, another 
sort of disappointment, to which fond parental love is some- 
times exposed ; — I mean that which happens when, from a 
want of discretion, or of energy, the affections of children 
are snatched from those who claim them by the rights of 
nature, and are fixed upon by-standers or strangers. Yet 
it is a law of the human mind — inevitable and uniform, that 
it attaches itself, especially in early life, to the wisest, and 
the finest, and the most consistently benign, of those who 
come daily within its circle. A mother, for instance, may 
possess many substantial good qualities, which should at- 
tach her children to herself ; and yet she may, in compar- 
ison with a teacher, or a relative, or even a servant, under 
the same roof, want tact, or calmness, or self-control, or 
dignity ; and so in fact be loved only in an inferior degree. 
Nor will children be able, even if they entertained the wish 
to do so, to disguise their regards, or to speak and look as 
if they loved her most whom they love least. For this 
grief there is but one remedy, or preventive — the en- 



LOVE AND ORDER. 59 

deavour to become such as shall command, without asking 
for it, the unrivalled affection of children. 

Beside the affection of which we have spoken, and beside 
the energy of mind which should be its counterpoise, and 
beside also the natural taste for teaching, there is a tact 
and address, not easily described, any more than easily ac- 
quired, which, in the daily and hourly government of chil- 
dren, and in rendering them happy, avails far more than all 
other qualities put together ,apart from itself. Mothers or 
teachers may be seen, in every respect, very poorly en- 
dowed with the knowledge or the principles, or with even 
the moral sentiments proper to the business of education, 
and yet unrivalled in the art of securing obedience, and of 
diffusing enjoyment, and of imparting so much knowledge 
as they profess to communicate. 

It is difficult, except by naming its opposites, to fix in 
words our conception of this desirable tact. We may say, if 
it be really needful to say so much, that it is not the product 
of any laboriously obtained knowledge of human nature, or 
of a scientific acquaintance with its principles. The hap- 
py management of human beings is, no doubt, in fact, al- 
ways in harmony with the laws of the human mind ; but 
this harmony is intuitively perceived, not learnedly acquired. 
Many a village dame plies the machinery of human nature 
well ; but never has a professor of philosophy told those to 
whom nature has not granted this tact, either how to ac- 
quire it, or how to manage without it. 

Parents may be found, in the highest degree solicitous 
for the welfare of their children, and not deficient in gene- 
ral intelligence, who nevertheless are perpetually struggling 
with domestic embarrassments, and sadly depressed by 
disappointment in the discharge of their daily duties. In 
such instances there may be observed, a something too 
much in the modes of treatment — too much talking and 
preaching, and a too frequent bringing in of ultimate mo- 



60 HOME EDUCATION '. 

lives, until the natural sensibility and delicacy of children's 
minds are, if the phrase may be allowed, worn threadbare ; 
for all the gloss of the feelings is gone, and the warp and 
substance are going. 

Such parents often, for the sake of making sure doubly 
sure, lift the arm of authority, when the raising of the finger 
is more than enough. An indiscreet anticipation of resist- 
ance never fails to suggest it. The simple law of the asso- 
ciation of ideas is the immediate cause of a vastly larger 
amount of human actions than what springs from any for- 
mal resolution so to act. In all cases, therefore, the proba- 
bility of compliance is much greater when nothing but 
compliance is expected, than when a thought of the con- 
trary is, by some inauspicious word, or a mere look of 
doubt and anxiety, suggested. The great world of moral 
agency turns glibly upon its pivots, by the momentum of 
habit and the association of ideas : mischief attends the 
attempt to urge its onward force, by more motive or rea- 
son, in any instance, than is wanted. 

If we were to attempt to divine the secret of a prosper- 
ous management of children, perhaps it would resolve itself 
into the simple fact of a quick perception of the train of 
their ideas, at any moment, and a facility in concurring with 
the stream of thought, whatever it may be, which, by the 
slightest guiding word or gesture, can be led into whatever 
channel may be desired. 

The rule of management might then be condensed into 
the three words— discern, follow, and lead. That is to 
say, there is first the catching of the clue of thought in a 
child's mind ; then the going on with the same train a lit- 
tle way ; and, lastly, the giving it a new, though not oppo- 
site direction. By the means of a governance of the 
wandering minds of children in some such method as this, 
there is hardly any limit to the control which may be exer- 
cised over, as well their conduct, as their moral and intel- 



LOVE AND ORDER. 61 

lectual habits. The same law of influence holds good 
even with adults, or at least with all but the most highly 
cultured and vigorous minds, which renounce this sort 
of control ; and it is on this principle that the dema- 
gogue, or the religious orator, who is gifted with an intui- 
tion of human nature, leads and turns the minds of thou- 
sands, by the lifting of his finger. 

But to return to our proper sphere — we may affirm that 
the government of minds is the easiest of all exercises, to 
whoever possesses the secret of influence, and is confident 
of success ; but the most difficult, and the most vexatious, 
to those who attempt it on formal principles, such as may 
be laid down in so many rules fitted to occasions. 

As the labours of instruction cannot be carried forward 
in a family except on the principle of spontaneous and per- 
fect obedience, nor this obedience be ensured apart from 
warm and vigorous reciprocal sentiments of love between 
parents and children, so we may add is there needed, for 
the animation of the entire system, and for giving it ease 
and velocity of movement, a certain hilarity, and even play- 
fulness, always saving decorum, on the part of parents and 
teachers, such as shall prevent, if we might so speak, the 
minds of children from dragging on the ground. 

If a mother preserves the gloss and brightness of her 
children's love by indulging them in playful caresses, so 
may a father render his authority the more intimate by 
holding it in reserve, while his ordinary manner toward his 
children is marked by vivacity, and a discreet intellectual 
sportiveness. It must, indeed, be thoroughly understood 
in the house that a father has, not only the power, but the 
resolution to enforce absolute submission to whatever he 
may command : — but it is enough if this be tacitly known • 
and the fact need very rarely be brought under notice. On 
the contrary, a father, immoveably firm as he may be in 
maintaining his rights if disputed or resisted, is yet, incom- 

6 



62 HOME EDUCATION : 

mon, the leader and author of pleasures, and especially of 
such as are in any way vivified by intelligence. 

A father who has the peculiar talent requisite for the pur- 
pose may with advantage, and especially at table, and in 
hours of relaxation — in the garden and the field, use a 
sparkling and sportive style, giving indulgence, under the 
restraints of good taste, to facetious turns, sudden compa- 
risons, and sprightly apologues. A chastened pleasantry 
serves many purposes, more or less important: — it graces 
and recommends the paternal authority ; it gives rise to a 
state of mind intermediate between sport and study, tending 
at once to connect the former with intelligence, and the lat- 
ter with pleasurable sensations ; it is a great means of 
quickening the sense of analogy, on which so much de- 
pends in all the higher mental processes ; and it is an ini- 
tiation in the vivid and elegant conversational manner that 
distinguishes the best society. 

A happy facetiousness on the part of parents or teachers, 
so far from rendering the ordinary style of conversation 
frivolous, on the contrary, in making the society of adults 
agreeable to children, gives them a distaste for that sheer 
inanity or vulgarity which is apt to prevail among them- 
selves. Moreover, inasmuch as this sort of converse 
breaks up the feeling of formality, too often separating 
parents and children, it promotes directly that intimacy and 
ingenuousness whence a real friendship may at length re- 
sult. What Lord Bacon says of pleasantry, in relation to 
the transaction of public business, is quite true also in edu- 
cation — Res est supra opinionem politica, facile transire & 
joco ad serium, a serio ad jocum. 

That degree of regularity and exactitude in carrying for- 
ward the daily routine of studies and recreations, which is 
indispensable in a home-taught family, as well as in a 
school, is secured, in different families, by very different 
means ; and the means actually employed, in any case, 



LOVE AND ORDER. 63 

might safely be taken as an indication of the height of the 
genuine feeling of affectionate reverence, prevailing in the 
minds of children. A prompt regard to time and order is 
that, without which no solid improvement can be made ; — 
on this point there can be no room for a question ; but it 
remains to be asked, by what means should this necessary 
observance of modes and seasons be effected 1 

Now it will generally be found in families where the 
filial sentiment is infirm, and therefore variable, that order, 
if maintained at all, is enforced by the means of a hundred 
petty and vexatious formalities — by fines and penalties, 
and complicated regulations, the general tendency of which 
is to damp the hilarity of childhood, to stagnate the under- 
standing, and to generate a habit of eye-service, and a re- 
gard to the letter more than to the spirit of the law ; from 
all which may easily spring a temper of mind incompatible 
alike with open-hearted simplicity of character, and with in- 
tellectual energy. 

But where a warm affection is the real spring of obe- 
dience, and where children are actually happy, from day to 
day, an exact regard to times and to plans, or as much ex- 
actness in this respect as can be deemed useful, may be 
secured — no one sees by what immediate means, for the 
whole movement is spontaneous — the machine is a living 
one ; and inasmuch as it is not on a very large scale, the 
known will of the supreme power comes in the place of 
whatever is formal or palpable. Along with the substan- 
tial advantages of regularity, there may therefore be enjoy- 
ed a feeling of liberty and of individual spontaneousness, 
highly conducive to vigour of mind, and especially to a 
clearly expressed originality of personal character. Too 
much law breaks down all minds to a dull uniformity. 

Stern punctuality in a family, effected by force of 
statutes and penalties, indicates, as I have said, a low 
temperature of the affections ; for there must be a great 



64 HOME EDUCATION I 

want of feeling, if not of intelligence, where the preserva- 
tion of order among seven or ten children, demands as 
much mechanism as is requisite in a school of a hundred. 
Let there be, as mere matter of convenience, the ringing 
of the bell at certain times ; but the bell should not sound 
in the ears of children as a tocsin of dismay. The minute 
hand of the clock may be referred to, for guidance ; but it 
should not, in the eyes of children, be invested with terrors, 
as if it were old Time's iron sceptre. 

In the preceding chapter, I stated my belief, that the 
happy development of the higher intellectual faculties de- 
pends, in a very intimate manner, upon the joyousness of 
early life ; and in this, we have spoken of family affection, 
and of the order thence resulting, as the means of family 
happiness ; but if it would not lead us too far, something 
might be advanced concerning the influence of kindly 
affections upon the intellectual powers, in preserving their 
equipoise or symmetry. Let it however be observed, in 
passing, that, as the moral elements of our nature, upon the 
sound condition of which happiness or misery turns, are, or 
ought to be, paramount, so do they, when in a healthy 
state, impart an equable activity to the rational faculties. 
The affections have a reciprocity with the reason, and with 
the imagination, which, indeed, is often severed by unfa- 
vourable influences, but which, if cherished in early life, 
may always be enhanced. 

Although we cannot command those rudiments of intel- 
lectual power which are the gift of nature, yet more than a 
little may be done, whatever be the rate of excellence 
originally put into our hands, in securing a vigorous 
development of the faculties — first, by merely promoting 
happiness ; and then, more specifically, by cherishing the 
moral sentiments. It is these that keep the mind in a 
plastic, soluble state, so as to facilitate the process of cul- 
ture : it is these that prevent such a fixedness and distor- 



LOVE AND ORDER. 65 

tion of the mind as defies the skill of the teacher. When 
lassitude has come on from too long continued mental 
labours, or when, in the eager pursuit of particular intellec- 
tual objects, the mind has got a bent so strong as to 
render a return to other studies peculiarly difficult or 
unpleasing, there are two means of restoring, at once, its 
elasticity and its equipoise ; the one is the relaxation to be 
found in active amusements, and the other is the genial 
suffusion of feeling through the soul, by the excitement of 
pure and tranquil moral emotions. Now, if the former be 
the means ordinarily to be resorted to, as always at hand, 
and always efficacious, we should hold the latter also at 
command, when a more thorough refreshment of the men- 
tal system is found to be needed. 

And here I cannot avoid a passing reference to the fact, 
of the very happy influence of a due and fervent attendance 
upon religious exercises — public and private, in bringing 
the mind home to its resting and to its starting points, and 
in favouring its recovery of that clearness and freshness 
of perception, and of that well-poised self-control and 
easy appliancy, which are lost in a course of severe appli- 
cation. I am prepared to affirm that, to the studious espe- 
cially, and whether younger or older, a Sunday well 
spext — spent in happy exercises of the heart, devotional 
and domestic — a Suaday given to the soul, is the best of 
all means of refreshment for the mere intellect. A Sunday 
so passed, is a liquefaction of the entire nature — a dis- 
persive process, dispelling mental cramps and stagnations, 
and enabling every single faculty again to get its due in the 
general diffusion of the intellectual power. 

If this be true, and I have the firmest persuasion that it is 
so, the general inference it suggests is easily applied to the 
business of education ; and the recollection of it will have 
its weight with parents in cherishing the religious and so- 
cial affections among their children. It is very certain that 

6* 



66 HOME EDUCATION : 

young persons may be shorn of their happiness, and may 
be chilled in their affections, and yet be made scholars, or 
mathematicians, or what else we please, in particular de- 
partments ; but I deny that they can have the benefit of a 
vigorous development of the mind, as a whole, except in the 
sunshine of happiness, and love, and piety. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE THREE PERIODS OF EARLY LIFE. INFANCY. 

It is assumed then that a family, retained for education 
at home, is actually enjoying, in some good measure, what 
has been stated as indispensable to the prosperous conduct 
of a domestic system of culture. 

But in preparation for putting such a system in move- 
ment, and especially as preliminary to what concerns the 
culture of the faculties in a natural order, it is necessary 
to distinguish, with some degree of precision, the several 
epochs of mental development, to each of which a specine 
treatment is proper : and whereas the classification effect- 
ed at school has regard, not so much to the real expansion 
of the powers, as to the accidental readiness of children in 
performing certain exercises ; on the contrary, at home, 
and inasmuch as a more correct adaption of the processes 
of instruction to the capacity of the learner is intended, 
there is required a classification which, while it is alto- 
gether irrespective of mere cleverness, or promptitude in 
performing tasks, is founded upon the spontaneous evolu- 
tion of the faculties, at certain periods of early life. 

Although, at a first hearing, it may seem a solecism 
to speak of the classification of two, or three, or seven chil- 
dren, yet it is true that the substantial benefits of classifica- 
tion, which consist in the treatment of each according to his 
capacities, are available with a few, as well as with many ; 



68 HOME EDUCATION: 

and indeed with one alone. At school, nothing can well be 
taken account of, but a boy's ability to keep his stand- 
ing in the performance of particular tasks ; if he fail in a 
particle, he descends ; if he excels but by ever so little, he 
rises ; but it may often happen that the descending mind is 
really a more mature and a more vigorous one than the as- 
cending, and might claim to be treated according to a high- 
er method. Again, the broad, yet unavoidable partition of 
a school into the two companies of the clever and the dull, 
seldom fails to bind up in the bundle of stupidity some who» 
although, from a certain peculiarity of their mental con- 
formation, they may often be at fault when competing with 
minds more alert, want only a discriminating care to bring 
them out, and to aid them in evolving perhaps a rare talent, 
or a budding of genius. 

But it is altogether another principle that is to govern 
the adaptation of the methods of culture to individual 
minds, at home. What a child can do, is not the question 
we have to ask, nor how he can acquit himself in company 
with others ; but rather this, what has nature, at this parti- 
cular period, done for him, and what therefore is the specific 
aid which he now needs from his teacher 1 

When, as we are now about to do, we speak of infancy, 
childhood, and youth, as the three easily distinguishable, 
and well-understood eras to which education applies, and 
when we say that infancy terminates with the sixth year, 
childhood in the eleventh or twelfth, and the period of ado- 
lescencein the seventeenth, it must not be forgotten that the 
characteristics of infancy sometimes disappear in the fourth 
year, and sometimes continue unchanged to the tenth; and 
that the season of childhood differs in its commencement 
and its close often, by so much as five years. 

All that can, or need be done, is to form a tolerably ex- 
act conception of what it is which really characterizes the 
several stages of early life; and then to look for these 



THE THREE PERIODS. 69 

marks of progression, as they present themselves in each 
instance. 

Infancv, the characteristics of which we are presently 
to attend to T is the period (the culture of the intellect being 
the object in view) during which the animal organization 
of the mind is advancing more rapidly than at any other 
period of life. Infancy, therefore, is the season in which 
every thing, so far as education is concerned, should be 
made subservient to the healthy growth and consolidation 
of the Brain. During infancy, whatever might irritate or 
disturb the nervous system, is utterly to be condemned and 
avoided. 

Childhood, the second period of early life, embracing 
six years, or seven, is the time during which the brain, hav- 
ing nearly reached its organic perfection, and ceasing 
therefore to be in a peculiarly critical condition, the body 
— the muscular and osseous systems, and the digestive 
functions, expand, consolidate, and are, or ought to be cor- 
roborated. Nature therefore still demands that our first 
cares be directed to the welfare of the animal economy, 
and denies any such excitements to be addressed to the 
mind, as tend to disturb or retard the physical growth. 
Nevertheless, the mind has now a remainder, or overplus 
of power at command, and may therefore be wrought upon 
with advantage, for there is at our disposal some power of 
attention, and some intellectual motive ; and while, during 
this flowery season, the plant should be kept in the sunshine 
of enjoyment, an initiation may be made, such as shall ren- 
der the after-course of study less difficult, by a degree of 
familiarity with the subjects it is to embrace. 

As infancy is unconscious life, childhood is conscious 
life ; and it is the season when the soul begins to recog- 
nize its individuality, and to inquire concerning its own 
well-being : it is now therefore that its free co-operation in. 



70 



HOME EDUCATION : 



the process of culture may be secured, and when reflex 
sentiments, springing from the experience of good and ill, 
may be brought into play, so as to enhance the mind's own 
power, and to put it on the course of self-control. 

The third period of early life, not very aptly designated 
by any English word — for the word youth, beside that it is 
not with propriety comprehensive of both sexes, is at once 
an abstract and a concrete term, and is therefore open to 
an inconvenient ambiguity — this season of adolescence, 
commencing about the eleventh year, extends beyond the 
time when the direct control of parents and teachers 
merges in the mind's rational command of itself; and when 
authority and implicit obedience give place to persuasion 
and moral influence. It is during this transition period, 
and while the authority of the teacher is in full force, and 
is yet conjoined with, and aided by the spontaneous energy 
of the pupil, that the arduous business of acquirement, in 
its various branches, and the strenuous process of mental 
exercise, are to be carried on. 

Youth is the season of restricted liberty, as well in a 
moral as an intellectual sense ; that is to say, there is 
action and personal freedom within a defined space ; and 
an alternate play is allowed to the feeling of individual re- 
sponsibility, and to the feeling of implicit submission. 
The mind is making its sallies upon the open ground of 
personal discretion ; and is yet continually pulled in, and 
brought back within the circle where the superior 
intelligence and power of another are absolute ; and 
this alteration peculiarly belongs to those who live under 
a home economy. 



INFANCY. 71 



INFANCY. 



Many practical inferences of great importance are in- 
volved in the one principle, that infancy is, in a peculiar sense, 
Nature's season ; — or in other words, that it is the period 
during which very little need be done except exclude any 
foreign disturbance of the natural development of the animal 
and mental functions. 

How much superfluous anxiety might be avoided, and 
how many ill-judged, and perhaps mischievous endeavours 
to develop the mind might be saved, were this principle fully 
understood and assented to ! Nor is this all ; for what is 
really to be done by the mother for her infant, during its 
first five or six years, and which, as T have said, consists 
almost entirely in warding off causes of disturbance, and 
which is enough to employ her hands and thoughts, might 
be done much better than often it is, did she but confine 
her attention to it, exclusively of the fruitless and often per- 
nicious labours which she imposes on herself. 

It has already been observed that the happiness of chil- 
dren is not a something to be found for them, or created ; 
but a something which they possess by the gift of nature, 
and in the enjoyment of which they are simply to be pro- 
tected. In like manner we now say that, as the infant 
faculties are not our work, so neither is the expansion of 
them our task : Nature takes care of this nice operation, 
and has herself surrounded the new-born mind with the 
best excitements and means of exercise. What remains is 
only to see to it that no unfavourable and accidental influ- 
ence comes in to spoil or to retard the process. 

Those who are not contented with this humble part, and 
who would fain give some tangible proofs, at once of their 
zeal and of their ingenuity, may succeed in putting both 
beyond doubt ; but not in doing better by art, what nature 



72 HOME EDUCATION : 

would have done well. Wonders may be achieved ; but 
minds so treated are not substantially, or in a lasting man- 
ner benefitted ; and if some few ambitious teachers do 
surprise the world by what they can effect, very many, 
aiming to do the same without the peculiar talents re- 
quisite for the purpose, wear out themselves, and their little 
pupils, in a turmoil of perplexing exercises ; and fret day 
after day, in the midst of a cumbrous apparatus of" means 
of development." Instead of all this, let us quietly observe 
what nature is about, and concentrate our cares and en- 
deavours upon the single point of seeing that, while the 
animal system is consolidating, amid what are the well un- 
derstood favourable circumstances — the vitality of the 
mind is preserved, by the gentlest and the most natural ex- 
citements. What we aim at is not to produce the mind ; 
but just to ascertain from day to day that it is quick, and is 
in preparation to come forth in its destined season. 

On the subject of infant training there has already taken 
place a return of the public mind to principles of common 
sense ; nor are the extravagances now often attempted, 
which were every where practised and applauded a few 
years ago. It was no wonder that, when first the attention 
of beneficent minds was directed to the art and science of 
education, as applicable to the mass of society, and es- 
pecially to the lower ranks, and when it was discovered 
how much more might easily be effected than had hereto- 
fore ever been dreamed of, that the kind-hearted and in- 
genious promoters of these charitable enterprises, flushed 
with success, should have loht their hold of sound reason. 

But the paroxysm of educational philanthropy has nearly 
subsided, and the substantial fruits of zeal and experience 
are being gathered. It is still however true that the mis- 
understood principles, and the hazardous practices which 
sprung out of the first heat of this zeal, and which, in all 



INFANCY. 73 

the best regulated schools, are meeting their correction, 
have, to some extent, pervaded the community, and have 
set wrong much relating to early treatment, in private 
families. 

Zealous and intelligent mothers have been induced to 
copy at home what they have seen done, or attempted, in 
the infant school ; and in adopting certain practices, the 
propriety of which, even in the infant school, might well 
have been questioned, have forgotten that the special rea- 
sons that might recommend such proceedings there, do not 
in any degree apply to a family. 

In truth, if public and private education are found to 
differ widely when we come to compare the two systems 
as taking effect upon children who have attained their tenth 
year, they are, or ought to be, still more strikingly dis- 
similar as bearing upon an earlier period. The very ob- 
jects aimed at in infant schools, and among the lowest class 
of a crowded population, are, many of them at least, the 
very things which should be put out of view in the treat- 
ment of a family. 

No doubts ought to be insinuated as to the substantial 
benefits likely to accrue from the infant-school system — as 
now amended, and as applied to the wretched and neglect- 
ed families of great towns. So employed, this system 
should be regarded altogether as a remedial economy, 
brought in for the relief of urgent misery : it is the doing 
the best possible under circumstances of a deplorable kind : 
it is a blessing from above, descending into an abyss of ig- 
norance and destitution. The rule of the infant-school 
system is — To effect the greatest possible good, in the 
shortest possible time, and at the cheapest possible rate. 
And in carrying out this rule it is necessary to employ every 
device that may be suggested by a parsimonious ingenuity, 
and such as shall spread a shining atom of knowledge over 
a surface astonishingly large. 

7 



74 HOME EDUCATION : 

It is but equitable, therefore, to applaud those wonders 
of charity that are daily performed in well-managed infant- 
schools ; nor perhaps should we be very nice in our in- 
quiries as to ultimate consequences, when we see the 
intelligence of ten or twelve years developed at four or 
five. But assuredly the amazement felt in witnessing 
these exploits should not induce us, in returning home, 
where every circumstance, present and future, is totally 
different, to attempt a nursery imitation of the infant- 
school machinery. 

Let it be granted that instances might be produced in 
which the pampered and fractious little crew of a car- 
petted and toy-stocked nursery would very poorly bear 
comparison, either as to intelligence or morals, with the 
children of an infant-school ; and that it might be much to 
their advantage to be handed over, without privilege, to 
pass through its discipline. All this may be true ; never- 
theless, what is actually wanted in a disorderly nursery is 
not — the infant-school system, though that were a benefit ; 
but more of good sense, intelligence, and energy, on the 
part of the mother or governess. 

We might go further, and grant that not a few home- 
taught children, trained even as we would have them 
trained, and in every repect wisely managed, might appear 
to disadvantage, if mixed in the ranks of an infant-school ; 
for they might seem less ready, less acute, and even less 
informed, than their equals in age about them. And what 
a triumph would it be to the promoters of " early develop- 
ment" to find children drawn from a family where all 
means of cultivation are at command, outdone an dput to 
shame by the stocking-weaver's Willy and Kitty ! 

A mortification such as this, might very placidly be 
borne by parents who know what they are about, and are 
carrying on intellectual culture as far as they think it 
should be carried, when an elaborate system of instruction 



INFANCY. 75 

is in prospect. With the children of the lower classes, if 
they can be snatched by any means, from utter neglect, it 
is "now or never," in whatever relates either to their moral 
or intellectual training. To-morrow, those whom we are 
wishing to reclaim, may be torn from us, never again to 
come within the precincts of knowledge or virtue. But in 
our own families, what imaginable motive can there be for 
attempting this year, what we shall better be able to effect 
the next? Under ordinary circumstances, the years of 
infancy are at our command, and so will be the years 
of childhood when they come, and so the years of ado- 
lescence. 

Moreover, it should be remembered, that the pernicious 
effects of a hurried and stimulating system of culture, as 
well upon the moral sentiments as the intellect, are likely 
to disappear in the case of children with whom the entire 
process of instruction is early brought to a close, and who, 
even if they may have sustained some mental or bodily 
injury, quickly lose every trace of it under the toils of 
the factory, or the field, where they too soon relapse into 
apathy and ignorance. Schooling completed at ten or 
twelve, the animal energy gets ahead of the mind, and as 
firm an insensibility is acquired as if there had been no 
infant-school development. 

But with children of the upper classes, fully educated, 
we can calculate upon no pause in the operations of men- 
tal culture ; on the contrary, one process of excitement 
is immediately to succeed another : and each, as it comes, 
is to be more strenuous than that which it displaces : and 
then, and without an interval, the emulations and the pow- 
erful influences of a college course, or of active life, are to 
follow, with their always increasing demands upon the re- 
sources of the body and the mind ; and thus the latter is 
constantly kept in advance of the former. 

It can hardly be necessary to use arguments in support 



76 HOME EDUCATION I 

of the general rule, that, in proportion as an intended sys- 
tem of mental culture is protracted, its commencement 
should be lenient; and that, in such cases, the spontaneous 
expansion of the faculties should be waited for, rather than 
hurried on, and that, looking to the remote issue of our en- 
deavours, the original stock of intellectual power should 
be husbanded, more than employed. It should be deemed 
that enough is done if a healthful vivacity of mind is pre- 
served, in readiness for the season of actual labour. 

The general question concerning the desirableness of 
early excitement, or the contrary, might be argued on the 
ground of three probable suppositions ; and the practical 
conclusion we must come to, will, 1 think, be the same in 
each. In the first place then, let it be supposed that a 
child exhibits extraordinary intelligence, and manifests an 
eager and unusual desire for knowledge ; and let it further 
be assumed that this early manifestation of mind is exempt 
from all suspicion of its arising from a dangerous activity 
of the brain ; but that, on the contrary, the bodily and men- 
tal constitution is thoroughly sound. Now, in this case, if 
we put aside the foolish ambition of showing off a prodigy 
of erudition, at seven years, there remains no motive what- 
ever, such as should impel a parent to hasten that eulture 
which, without a shadow of doubt, will proceed rapidly 
enough, whenever it may be seriously commenced. 

Taking due care that the tastes be not directly thwarted, 
and that the mind be not broken with restraints, why 
should we not secure for the bodily system a long morning 
of animal tranquillity, and gay sunshine 1 Why not allow 
the eager spirit a long familiarity with Nature's self, before 
the time when Learning — her interpreter, comes in to be 
the chief speaker ? 

But, in the second place, if in any case there be reason 
to fear — and when is there not some reason to fear ? that 
precocious intelligence is the ominous symptom of a morbid 



INFANCY. 77 

temperament ; then, assuredly, one course only ought to 
be taken ; for, if there be at all a chance for the preserva- 
tion of the life and the intellect, in such cases, it turns 
entirely upon our holding education in abeyance, and upon 
the removal of every mental excitement. What indul- 
gence so cruel as that of feeding, without restraint, the 
ravenous mind, whose appetite for knowledge is a prog- 
nostic of death ! 

Or let us, in the third place, suppose the opposite case, 
of an original defect of intelligence ; then we may be sure 
that, either the torture we inflict upon both teacher and 
pupil by a too early and a forced system of instruction, will 
be totally fruitless ; or that it will generate such a distaste 
of all learning, as to accumulate insurmountable difficulties 
upon the future path, when necessary acquirements are to 
be made. Besides, we should always keep in view the 
possible case of some rare faculties being concealed be. 
neath the appearance of stupidity, and which may be per- 
manently injured by a forced development : such a mind, 
watched over and cherished, will not fail to take up its own 
education in due time. 

But in the instance of children of ordinary intelligence, 
our alternative is by no means that of rendering them book- 
learned in infancy, or of leaving them to reach childhood 
in a vacant and uninformed mental condition. This is now 
much better understood than once it was ; and yet the 
practical inference is not always consistently carried into 
effect, even in the best managed families. 

Not a syllable of book-learning need have been ac* 
quired, and scarcely a task learned, and yet the mind of a 
child, in its fifth year, may be not merely in a state of the 
happiest moral activity, but may be intellectually alive, and 
actually enriched too by various information, concerning 
th6 visible universe ; and may have made acquaintance 
with whatever presents itself under a pleasurable aspect—^ 

7* 



78 HOME EDUCATION : 

and assuredly nothing but what is agreeable should at all 
be presented to the infant mind : — this rule excludes not 
merely objects or ideas positively unpleasing, but all such 
as are dry, and devoid of attractions. 

In the flower-garden, and among the gay, winged, hum- 
ming tribes that frequent it, Nature opens her school ; — we 
have but to lead our infant charge thither, and simply to 
act as her interpreters ; and when this pictured alphabet 
has been learned, it will be easy to go afield, and thence to 
mount higher and higher, until we tread the skies, and 
make some acquaintance with distant worlds. None but 
the most dronish teachers can need to be told that the ex- 
acting of volumes of lessons may entirely fail of quicken- 
ing the mind. There may, however, be many who, from 
the conscious or supposed want in themselves of various 
information, and of the requisite fertility of thought, adhere 
to the stultifying practice of lesson-giving, although they 
perceive its inutility, and would gladly, if not at too great a 
cost of mind, adopt a different method. 

Hints, intended to facilitate such a better purpose, will 
hereafter be suggested ; at present I would offer some 
considerations which may serve to confirm the minds of 
parents in the resolution not to allow more than a very 
little book-learning to be attempted during the first 
period of education. 

It is not so much the actual process of learning to read, 
as the consequences of being able to read, during early 
years, which are to be guarded against ; and this period, be 
it remembered, extends to the time when the organization 
of the brain is complete, and when its ultimate dimensions 
are nearly attained. In learning to read, if the process be 
conducted with a fair degree of discretion, the mind is not 
taxed by the demand of continuous attention ; on the con- 
trary, its frequent stops and trips, and the consequent inter- 
position of the teacher, break up the exez-cise into morsels, 



INFANCY. 79 

and afford respites and turns-off to the brain. Moreover, 
before that habit of the eye and ear is perfectly formed, 
which enables an adult to read without a thought of the 
combination of letters in words, the mind is still occupied 
with the visible symbols, on the page ; nor does the mental 
operation essentially differ from that which is every hour 
going on, while the names of familiar objects are becoming 
associated with them in the memory. 

The only inquiry likely to accrue from the mere opera- 
tion of learning to read, is that which happens when the ex- 
ercise, each time, is continued a little too long, so as to 
impair the animal vivacity. But the mental process be- 
comes altogether of another sort when a good degree of 
proficiency has been made ; for, from that time, and until 
the connexion between written words and the ideas they 
stand for has become so familiarly perceived, as that the 
mind is no longer conscious of any act in passing from the 
one to the other — until that time, there is an ill-adjudged 
movement going on in the brain, of a kind always more or 
less hurtful. 

This circumstance deserves to be more understood and 
considered than it usually is. Let it be observed then 
that the mind, or the brain, and it is of no importance here 
to inquire which, is, in every instance, perturbed, and ex- 
posed to injury, when two operations, linked one with the 
other, are going on, but which do not accurately keep time, 
or advance precisely at the same rate. It is hence that 
most cases of confusion of the thoughts arise ; and an at- 
tention to the simple fact might, in very many instances, 
greatly aid those who, in the transaction of complicated 
affairs, are liable to lose the ready command of their 
faculties. 

Instances of this sort are easily named, such as when an 
unpractised writer is labouring to keep pace with a speak- 
er ; or when a clerk, less expert, is collating accounts in 



80 HOME EDUCATION : 

company with one more so ; or when a performer in a con- 
cert is embarrassed between the rival claims of the ear, the 
eye, and the fingers, in executing a part not familiar to 
him : or, to name an instance precisely in point, when an 
adult has made just that degree of acquaintance with a new 
language which exempts him from the necessity of inces- 
santly breaking off from his book, to consult his lexicon ; 
so that he pursues, or endeavours to pursue, the sense of 
the writer at the ordinary pace at which the eye traverses 
a printed page. In this case, he finds that the rate of pro- 
gress to which the eye is habituated, and which it does not 
readily slacken, greatly exceeds that at which the mind can 
get through the complicated process of recollecting the 
meaning of single words, and of analyzing the construc- 
tion of sentences. There is therefore a perpetual jar — a 
want of synchronous movement, and a sense of distress, 
and a strain, which quickly exhaust the power of attention ; 
or, if persisted in, impair the brain. 

Those who have made acquirements later than in youth, 
will remember to have found the second stage of their fa- 
miliarity with a new language more trying to the mind than 
the first ; or, in other words, they will have been able to 
spend some hours, with less bodily and mental damage, in 
conning a book, word by word, in a language barely under- 
stood, than in attempting to read off an author of whose 
language they have deemed themselves nearly masters. In 
reading word by word, the several mental operations are 
held to time by the mere interruption ; but in reading para- 
graphs continuously, the eye outstrips the memory, and the 
mind is wrenched. 

Now a child, just after he has become so far familiar 
with written language as to be able to enunciate sentences 
without hesitation, is yet far from having acquired an in- 
stantaneous recollection — perhaps no knowledge at all, of 
a large proportion of the words he meets with, and espe- 



INFANCY. 81 

cially as they are artificially collocated in books. The habit 
of the eye, and of the voice, is therefore hurrying him on 
much faster than the mind can follow ; and he either aban- 
dons altogether the attempt mentally to accompany his own 
voice, or he suffers harm. And it is manifest that, while 
children of little or no intelligence will, by adopting the for- 
mer expedient, escape uninjured ; those whose curiosity is 
keen will not be content with any such vapid practice, and 
are therefore liable to so much the more damage. 

And in another way it is intelligent children who suffer 
the most from much reading ; for, while they shun the nur- 
sery nonsense, the cock-robin inanities, that amuse their 
inferiors, and are always seeking for books a step or two 
above their comprehension, the stress of the mind is in- 
creased. Books of the highest class, totally unintelligible 
to them, would be less injurious than are such as they usu- 
ally crave and devour. But when the same book is read 
to an intelligent child, at a moderate rate, the mind, far 
more familiar with words by the ear than by the eye, catches 
the meaning of sentences rapidly enough to prevent the 
jar between the exterior and interior faculties. 

Nevertheless, this ill consequence of much reading, dur- 
ing the period of infancy, is of a kind to wear aAvay by mere 
habit, and by a constantly extending familiarity with the 
meaning of words. But it is not so with another injurious 
effect of reading, which affects the animal system in all its 
functions ; and though little thought of, is, as I have no 
doubt, a frequent cause of general infirmity of health, and 
serious diseases of the sensorium. 

Adults utterly forget the physical sensations of early 
life, even if they were distinctly regarded at the time ; nor 
are there any means of ascertaining some very important 
facts, which the habits of adolescence obliterate, except a 
very careful observation of children, guided by specific in-* 
formation. Few persons conversant with children, can 



82 HOME EDUCATION : 

have failed to notice the pallid visage, the lowered pulse, 
and the dyspeptic look, or actual nausea, which are produc- 
ed by reading, and especially when a child reads to himself. 
These appearances we are used to attribute, in a loose 
manner, to too much study ; and we are satisfied in finding 
that the complexion and the appetite presently return upon 
the play-ground. But, in fact, the injury, the immediate 
symptoms of which quickly disappear, is always more or 
less permanent, and if often repeated greatly debilitates the 
system. Let any one try the easy experiment of drawing 
a dotted line three or four inches in length upon a blank 
page, marking the extremities with a cross, and then let 
him, fifty times consecutively, traverse this line with the 
eye from end to end. There are few brains, I believe, of 
so firm a texture as not to find fifty repetitions of this jour- 
ney of the eye more than enough to produce a very disa- 
greeable sensation of giddiness ; for not merely does the 
eye-ball ache, but the head swims ; and effect of such an 
oscillation of the sight is nearly the same as is produced by 
the motion of a ship. 

What prevents our being conscious, in this way, of the 
perpetually retorted movement of the eye, in ordinary read- 
ing, is the mind's engagement with the subject ; and in 
proportion as the subject engrosses the attention, the phy- 
sical consequences of the mechanical operation disappear. 
It is on this same principle that some vivid excitement, tak- 
ing place on ship-board, dissipates for the time the sick- 
ness of almost the feeblest stomachs ; the stronger class 
of sensations overcoming the weaker. Mere habit also 
effects for the adult reader, what it does for the sailor, ren- 
dering both unconscious of the derangement of the head 
and stomach, or rather preventing altogether any such dis- 
turbance of the system. Yet any one may revive this sen- 
sation either in the way that has just been mentioned, or 
by compelling himself to read page after page of a Ian- 



INFANCY. 83 

guage unknown to him, and which therefore does not en- 
gage the mind. 

But inasmuch as the language of books is barely under- 
stood by a child, and awakens little emotion, the mechani- 
cal influence of the operation of reading takes its full effect 
upon the brain ; and although it does not actually produce 
sickness, it does, almost invariably, enfeeble the circula- 
tion, and derange the digestive organs. There is no kind 
of application which so certainly debilitates the animal 
functions of a child as reading does ; and although the 
traces of the injury sustained at any one time are quickly 
obliterated by active sports, it is an error to suppose that 
the constitution retains no permanent damage. I am in- 
clined to think that the comparative delicacy of muscular 
texture, and the dyspepsia, which so commonly attach to 
children whose minds are much elicited, is attributable 
more to the mere practice of reading, than to any one 
other circumstance whatsoever, or to all others put to- 
gether. At least it is certain that the ruddy vigour of high 
health will almost always be found in inverse proportion to 
the hours in the day during which a child has a book be- 
fore his eyes. 

Little caution need be used in this respect with children 
of active dispositions, who do not soon forfeit their roses 
by too much study ; but there are those who no sooner 
taste the sweets of reading, and become conscious of the 
pleasures of intellectual gormandizing, than they give them- 
selves to it, if allowed, incessantly ; nor do they fail to ex- 
hibit the effects of what is nothing else than a perpetual 
mental intoxication. Reading without intelligence injures 
the brain and stomach mechanically: reading with intelli- 
gence injures both, in the less direct manner of nervous 
ex?itement; but either way, much reading and robust 
health are incompatible. 

Only let a child, eager for knowledge, be read to, in- 



84 home education: 

stead of allowing him to read to himself, and the whole of 
the mechanical mischief is avoided : — and again, let him 
be freely conversed with, in a desultory manner, in the 
midst of active engagements, and out of doors ; and then, 
while an equal amount of information is conveyed, and in 
a form more readily assimilated by the mind, then nearly 
all the mischiefs of excitement, as springing from study, 
are also avoided. In a word, let books in the hand, ex- 
cept as play-things, be, as much as possible, held back 
during the early period of education ; and the later the 
time at which they are freely allowed the better. 

If it were not true that, notwithstanding the improved 
notions now prevalent, relative to early tasking and lesson- 
learning, there is always a probability that perfunctory 
teachers will adhere to the reprobated practice, I should 
not think it necessary to dwell upon the subject. It is, 
however, absolutely necessary that parents, who avail 
themselves of the services of a governess or tutor, as most 
must do, should have a Strang conviction of the injuri- 
ous consequences attending the method of gorging chil- 
dren, and especially young children, with the verbiage 
of tasks. Unfortunately, nothing can supply the place of 
task-work in education, but the elastic intelligence of the 
teacher's own mind ; and those who possess no such spring 
of movement, will always, if allowed to do it, swamp the 
understandings of children in lessons. 

The committing of Verse to memory is, as I shall have 
occasion again to say, a facile and altogether unexception- 
able exercise of that faculty ; and a ready means of fixing 
the best sentiments in the mind, in connexion with pleasur- 
able emotions ; and this mental association is perhaps the 
most important of any which it is the object of education to 
form. But I am inclined to doubt if a balance of good is 
in any case secured by the practice of loading the memory 
with PaosE, of any kind ; and especially with such prose 



INFANCY. 85 

as the rules and rudiments of the sciences, or of grammar 
— all which may be taught far more effectively in another 
manner. As a means of learning any thing which it is in- 
tended that the understanding should grasp, the consigning 
a prose task to the memory does all that can be done to 
defeat the end which we ought to have in view; for the or- 
ganic process of reverting, in quick alternation, from the 
page to the brain, from the brain to the page, in learning a 
task, is nothing but a lulling dose to the mind; and if long 
continued, renders the conceptive faculty and the reason 
absolutely torpid. Nothing is left in a child's mind, after 
a while, but the see-saw habit, on the perfection of which 
he knows he must depend for his power of going through 
with a faultless repetition of his task. And if the faultless- 
ness of the repetition be exacted by the teacher with any 
rigour, so as to produce some anxiety while learning, the 
process is enough to stupify the most vigorous understand- 
ing ; and as to the dull, it excludes every hope of vivifica- 
tion, and fixes them in a vacant lethargy, never afterwards 
to be dispelled. 

Let any one watch the countenances of a row of chil- 
dren, repeating the rules of grammar, or the abstruse 
definitions of artificial geography, or any such gib- 
berish, which a mindless and indolently laborious teacher 
may have enjoined. Let him turn his eye, first, toward 
the least intelligent of the class, and he will perceive that 
these, as they have made no attempt whatever to attach a 
meaning to the words and sentences they are repeating, 
and have, on the contrary, concentrated their attention upon 
the mere series of sounds, so that the entire process is 
purely organic — these will, for the most part, acquit them- 
selves with alacrity, and obtain the approving smile of the 
kindred spirit that presides over the performance. But 
alas for those who, under such a teacher, and subjected to 
such a process, possess some intelligence, and have not as 

8 



86 HOME EDUCATION : 

yet learned to quash it ! While passing through the terrors 
of repetition, the agitated and flushed faces of children of 
this sort, indicate the distressing to-and-fro movement of 
the faculties : — while learning there r61e, they have in- 
stinctively endeavoured to connect ideas with the words 
of the lesson ; and not having the benefit of intelligent 
guidance in doing so, have probably perplexed themselves 
beyond all hope of extrication, among the crabbed barbar- 
isms of their task : — besides, they are now compelled to 
have recourse to their recollection of mere sounds, and 
thus are doubly embarrassed between memory and reason, 
between sounds and ideas ; and meantime are scared by 
the harsh rebukes of their undiscriminating teacher. 
Through the fine transparent countenance, glowing with 
fear and shame, and which might so easily have been made 
to sparkle with the free interchange of a congenial intelli- 
gence — through the countenance, you may look into the 
very organ of thought, and discern the curdling of the 
brain under this species of torture. Now, the harassed 
mind snatches at the mere sounds of the lesson; and now 
again endeavours to catch the rational clue of its ideas ; 
until at length it becomes totally bewildered. 

Intelligent children, so unfortunate as to come under a 
treatment of this sort, if not at length broken down and 
stultified, learn, after a while, to rid themselves fairly of 
their understandings whenever they have to do with their 
teacher, and get the habit of regarding school hours as so 
much time spent in the dark. They have found that, in 
school, Thought was punishable, or was a contraband 
commodity, and therefore they keep it in their sleeve. 
Common minded children could lose nothing if their tasks 
were given them in Chaldee ; while by this means intelli- 
gent children would be exempted from a serious disadvan- 
tage, inasmuch as reason and memory would no longer be 
set together on the rack. 



INFANCY. 87 

There is however an opposite error ; and children, dur- 
ing the early period of which we are now speaking, may 
suffer in an equal degree by a mistaken endeavour to be 
" very rational, and very philosophical," in whatever is 
said and done with and for them. The true philosophy of 
early treatment is to remember that children are not philo- 
sophers, nor capable of being made such. A teacher's 
own intelligence is to be employed tacitly, for the benefit 
of children ; not to be let fall upon them in mass : it is to 
come down like the dew ; not to descend as a water-spout. 
Need it be said that early childhood knows little of abstrac- 
tions, and nothing of the complicated abstractions involved 
in reasoning. 

A broad and important distinction is to be observed, in 
dealing with young children, between their being reason- 
able, and their being able to reason. These things 
totally unlike as they are, except in the mere sound of the 
words, may easily be confounded, and the one be put in 
the place of the other. A child, in its third year, or even 
earlier, may, by proper treatment, be rendered thoroughly 
reasonable; but it is not until years afterwards that any 
mental process, such as ought to be called reasoning, should 
be attempted with him. Many an acute and sound reason- 
er of adult age is in fact far less reasonable, in his general 
conduct, than a well-trained child of eight years. 

Children it is true, may be talked with in an illative 
style ; and they may be dragged along, from inference to 
conclusions, and may be made to lisp the ergos of logic ; 
but there is nothing of reality in all this ; and if they are 
examined in an inartificial manner, on the points of argu- 
ment which they have seemed to follow, it will be found 
that they have failed entirely of grasping the dependence 
of ideas. 

A child is reasonable who, in consequence of the pains 
bestowed upon him (for few or none are reasonable spon« 



OS HOME EDUCATION : 

taneously) has learned to entertain a second or modifying 
motive, along with the first which suggests itself to him ; 
and who actually holds an involuntary motive in abeyance, 
while he yields to that which is better, but not so impera- 
tive. To be reasonable, is to be governed by a disposition 
which inclines one to listen to considerations opposed to 
the impetus of appetite, selfishness, vanity, pride, resent- 
ment : — it is to retain, amid the hurry of personal desires, 
a recollection of the wishes, the will, the comfort, the 
affection, of others, whether they be present or absent : — 
it is to have the habit of keeping the future in view, while 
the present is importunately pressed upon attention. But 
this sort of reasonableness — the indispensable condition of 
moral discipline and domestic government, manifestly and 
totally differs from the power of following the abstruse rela- 
tions or dependencies of things; or, as it is called, of rea- 
soning, which demands always an effort of abstraction, and 
a power of combining series of inferences. A child, 
much more reasonable in fact than many a philosopher, 
must be a prodigy of intelligence if he feally traces and 
grasps more than one inference at a time, and that of the 
most palpable kind. 

Some little preliminary exercises, or rather play of the 
reasoning faculty, may, if the teacher pleases, be attempted 
at an early age ; but the inferential process must relate to 
things that can actually be spread out before the eye ; as 
when the simpler operations of arithmetic are exhibited by 
the means of counters. In fact, however, it is not seldom 
attempted to force into a child's mind the most crabbed of 
all abstractions — -those for example of grammar, or of arti- 
ficial geography and astronomy, in teaching what is called — 
the use of the globes. A teacher who might deem it a too 
familiar employment for himself, and a too knotty point for 
a child — to explain why and how a pump raises water from 
a well ; or why a weight, borne on a pole between two, 



INFANCY. 89 

should be placed in the middle ; or how a paper kite is sus- 
tained in the air, will be seen hammering the reason of a 
rule of syntax, or labouring to explain the precession of the 
equinoxes, or the means that have been employed for ad- 
justing the calender. 

While spending their own strength, and wasting or 
breaking down that of their pupils, by striving to call out 
the faculty of abstraction, and of ratiocination, five years 
before its time, teachers are fond of justifying their 
ill-judged assiduity by saying — " Only make children un- 
derstand the reason of the rule that is given them, and 
thenceforward all will be easy." This maxim may be 
sound enough in itself; but the question returns — At what 
age should such explanations be attempted in relation to 
each branch of knowledge? Something of the sort may 
be done in conveying the rudiments of mechanics, or of 
astronomy, long before it should be thought of in relation 
to subjects purely intellectual. 

Yet, even in relation to the very simplest and most pal- 
pable mechanical principles, and in the case of children 
decidedly intelligent, I have seen reason to doubt whether 
a particle of advantage is really gained by endeavouring to 
make them syllogize, or reach conclusions, before the 
mind has acquired any degree of grasping force. We 
often totally deceive ourselves, when we think a child has 
followed us in the explanation we have been giving of some 
abstract relation, or dependency of cause and effect. Let 
him be asked to give his own statement of this same chain 
of inferences ; and it will probably appear that it has been 
the concrete, not the abstract he has seized ; or perhaps he 
has rested in some accidental and whimsical sense of the 
phrases we have used. A little girl is told that — a verb is a 
word that signifies to be, to do, or to suffer ; and that a verb 
of the first sort is called neuter, of the second active, and of 
the third passive, as — I am — I teach — You are taught 

8* 



90 HOME EDUCATION : 

" Oh yes, mamma, I understand that very well ; for I know 
it costs you much trouble to teach me, and unless you were 
of a very active disposition I am sure you would not be able 
to do it; and then I am often very tired, and have the head- 
ache when you have been teaching me ; and so I suffer, when 
I am taught, and therefore being taught, is a passive verb: 
— all this about verbs is very plain." 

An intelligent teacher, if, during the early period of edu- 
cation, he aims at all to elicit the abstractive and reasoning 
faculty (which there is no motive for doing) will at least 
observe the distinction betweenpresentingsuch conclusions 
as are mere statements of known facts, and such as in- 
volve a train of inferences, and which must be seen in 
their dependence, from the first link to the last, as for ex- 
ample. — If the see-saw be evenly balanced, and you get 
upon one end of it, what happens 1 — My end comes to the 
ground, and the other mounts aloft. — Yes, unless there be 
some one of equal weight at that end, and then ? — it ba- 
lances. But if you slip off when your end touches the 
ground, what then 1 Whoever is at the other end will de- 
scend with a jerk, and perhaps will be hurt. — Well then, 
remember never again to jump off, as you did yesterday, 
unless your companion is prepared to do so at the same 
time. 

This is at once understood, because the inference, with 
its practical conclusion, is itself only the statement of a 
fact as familiarly known as the premises, and in experience, 
the premises and the conclusion are actually conjoined. 
But if we were to ask the same child to give the reason, or 
were ourselves to state it, why, when one sits nearer to the 
fulcrum than the other, he can no longer counterpoise his 
antagonist ; or why boys of unequal weight may balance 
each other by placing themselves at proportionate dis- 
tances from the centre of oscillation, the explanation, in 
this case, involves the doctrine of the compensations of 



INFANCY. 91 

space and time, or the principle of the lever ; and it is a 
chance if the most expert teacher will succeed in rendering 
any such abstruse principle really intelligible to a child of 
the age we are now supposing. This at least is certain, 
that the comprehension of it will have demanded an effort 
too great for the unripe brain ; it will have occupied time 
that might have been better employed ; and will, in less 
than an hour, have flown, leaving nothing in the mind but 
a jumble of crabbed phrases and puzzling diagrams. If a 
child strives to understand a complicated statement, but 
fails in his endeavours, his faculties have been perturbed ; 
if he does understand it, by extraordinary intelligence, a 
rare power, in the bud, has been forced, which, without a 
doubt, would have expanded, have blossomed, and fructi- 
fied in due season : what motive can justify the violence 
we have been doing to nature ] 

Happily, and by the beneficent constitution of the human 
system, animal and mental, the mischief done, at any one 
time, by a too ambitious teacher, may entirely be remedied 
by half an hours high sport. — Play disperses the dose of 
logic, and all is right again. This corrective effect of the 
active gaiety of children, will, in most instances, render the 
over zeal of a teacher harmless ; but it is certain that a 
brain of fine and rare organization, eager for knowledge, 
maybe permanently injured by such treatment. A mind, 
thus early curdled by injudicious zeal, might be com- 
pared to a marbled paper — in the old fashion, the bright 
colours of which, streaked into fantastic forms, might, if re- 
served for the pencil of the master, have pictured the beauty 
of the real world. But to this subject I must return, pre- 
sently. 

In adherence to the general principle which, as I think, 
should distinguish the slow but comprehensive culture to 
be pursued at home, from the hurried development, neces- 
sarily aimed at where education is to be imparted at a 



92 



HOME EDUCATION : 



cheap rate, and to large numbers — in adherence to this 
leading principle, I should lightly esteem, or entirely re- 
ject various ingenuous devices — the philosophical pas- 
times, and games of science, which have indeed a show of 
utility ; and perhaps a little more, when resorted to under 
the circumstances that attach to frugal education. But 
children who enjoy ample spaces and means for sheer 
amusement, and who are out of doors, and at liberty six 
hours of the day, as they ought, do not need to be amused 
also during the few hours in which they are receiving in- 
struction. Besides that such devices will seem very poor 
pleasure to those whose pleasures, properly so called, are 
of the most exhilarating sort. Or if considered as means 
of learning, these devices are circuitous, cumbrous, and 
fantastic ; and tend rather to distract the understanding, 
than to aid it. A vivacious and intelligent teacher finds no 
difficulty in conveying the elements of geography, astro- 
nomy, and even arithmetic, in a form such as children will 
attend to with eagerness ; and this without the gilding that 
is contrived with the view of cheating the young mind into 
knowledge, as babies are beguiled to swallow medicine. 

Much also has been said of late, of certain " exercises 
of the senses," concerning the utility of which I will give 
no opinion, when brought to bear upon children in infant 
and parochial schools. In such places it may be well to 
provoke the sluggish perceptions, as well as to stimulate 
the dormant reason, by all possible means. But I really 
do not know what it is that remains to be desired, in regard 
to the ordinary purposes of life, if the body be sound, and 
in high health, and the mind be alert. It is to the savage, 
or it is to men exercising special callings of an inferior 
sort, that there can be much benefit in having the senses 
sharpened to an extreme acuteness. A sight like the vul- 
ture's, or the power of descrying a sparrow in a hedge, half 
amile distant, or of hearing the creeping of a dormouse in the 



INFANCY. 93 

next field ; or a sense of feeling such as may serve a man if 
he goes blind, or a nicety of smell and taste fitting him to be 
chief in a French kitchen — accomplishments such as these, 
important as they may be to those who are destined to prac- 
tise handicrafts, and to " shift for themselves " through 
life, can be of little value to those who are to take their 
position in society on the higher ground of intellectual and 
moral qualities. In truth, it may be questioned whether a 
gentleman might not really wish himself wanting in such a 
legerdemain perfection of the senses, as would be likely to 
suggest to others the belief that he had passed his child- 
hood under the tuition of a gang of gypsies. 

There are, however, certain exercises of the senses 
which, in a manner that has not been duly regarded, tend 
to give activity and precision to the faculty of abstraction ; 
and of these I shall speak particularly on a future occasion. 
For the rest, that is to say, whatever reaches its end in the 
bodily perceptions, I think we can go but a very little way 
without so giving the mind a bent toward the lower facul- 
ties, as must divert it from the exercise of the higher. A 
man may be a proficient in active sports, and gentlemanly 
gymnastics, compatibly with elegance and elevation of 
mind ; but it is another thing so to send the soul outward 
toward its perceptive consciousness as to imbue it with 
the organic sensitiveness of the lynx, the hare, or the 
spider. 

It is readily granted that, if a child appear to be by con- 
formation defective in any of his perceptions, artificial 
means should be resorted to for remedying, as far as pos- 
sible, the inconvenience thence arising: and it may be 
well also, on the other hand, to bestow a peculiar training 
upon any natural faculty, which may seem a special endow- 
ment, intended to constitute the distinction of the indivi- 
dual. But in general, active sports, with music and draw- 



94 HOME EDUCATION : 

ing, will be found to afford all the training of the senses 
which we need care for. 

During early childhood enough is done — every thing (in 
relation to intellectual culture,) which should be thought of, 
if mental vivacity be maintained. Far more safe is it 
to stop at this point, than to attempt any development of 
the reason ; and far more useful too, if we look to the fu- 
ture, than the conveyance of any amount of knowledge that 
may be imparted at the cost of a child's animal hilarity. 
If the mind be quick — if a child reaches the second period 
of life apt to learn, even if he knows little or nothing, a 
wise parent may be content. 

Intellectual vitality, as distinguished from a precocious 
development of reason, and from specific acquirements, 
results, in a spontaneous manner, from mere converse 
with those who themselves possess it. Vivid intellectu- 
ality is an emanation, absorbed unconsciously by all 
coming within its circle. An intelligent mother, for in- 
stance, if she will but fully trust to the unthought-of radia- 
tion of her own mind, without deeming it incumbent upon 
her to reduce this influence, and to abate it, under the form 
of set exercises, and processes of instruction, will rarely, 
if ever, fail to have the satisfaction of handing her children 
over, in their ninth or tenth year, to those who are to com- 
mence a more defined course of training, in a state really 
the best for deriving advantage from it. 

The sparkling flow of desultory intercourse, which, 
while it is little more than prattle on the one side, is, on 
the other, a pointed, playful, but well-aimed rejoinder-^, 
having its ulterior purpose, though unperceived ; such a 
style of converse involves, as I think, nearly all the educa- 
tion which young children need receive. A prompt and 
concise reply to every question, and a leading on, in each 
instance, a little farther, but not far, will enable a mother 



INFANCY. 95 

not only to make herself sought after, and courted, as the 
most agreeable companion her children can find, but to 
convey, no one can tell how, or when, so much knowledge 
of what is afterwards to be systematically learned, as shall 
serve to remove all the ruggedness from the entrance to 
the temple of learning. 

In this mode an adroit teacher contrives, as if it were 
incidentally, to lift the corners of the curtain of Philosophy, 
to awaken the zest of children, and to give them some fa- 
miliarity with things and terms, without taxing their atten- 
tion in any case, five minutes at a time, or loading their 
memories with a single technical term. 

But it must be confessed that a teacher who pursues a 
method such as this, will have less leisure for herself, than 
one who imposes stated tasks upon her pupils ; for she will 
never be able to say — her work is done, while her charge 
are up and about. The indolent, therefore, will choose 
rather to condense all they have to do into a two or three 
hours' schooling, and then be free. On the other hand, an 
ambitious teacher does not readily consent to relinquish the 
triumph of an exhibition of the incredible proficiency of her 
pupils in getting through task-work : but a mother, we 
presume, has at once the energy and the self-denial de- 
manded by the very different course we have been speaking 

of. 

As to schooling, with its stated hours for application 

and sitting still, it is no doubt highly useful, as a means of 
filling up the day, so as may give a zest to every moment 
of it. But there is enough in the purely mechanical parts 
of education to occupy these hours ; and the employments 
during what are called school-hours should be such as tend 
rather to lull and tranquillize, than to excite the facul- 
ties. It is out of school, — it is on the play-ground, 
and abroad, and at table, that the vivifying commu- 



96 home education: 

nion of minds between parents and children will take 
place. 

During the season of infancy, and indeed some way on 
beyond that time, the mind, left to the natural expansion of 
the faculties, resents whatever is continuous ; nor should 
it ever be tormented by compelling it to follow more than a 
link or two of any chain of ideas. There is practical 
meaning in the familiar comparison often made of the in- 
fant mind to a narrow-necked bottle, which, with due 
patience, may be filled by drops ; but into which it is im- 
practicable to pour a stream. And, happily, the pouring of 
drops is an operation well adapted to occupy the time that 
is actually before us. 

In some esteemed works on education, we are presented 
with specimens of inferential interrogation, by the means 
of which, as we are assured, children may be led a long 
way through the waters of logic, on easy stepping-stones, 
adapted to their stride, and such as shall bring them into a 
clear perception, that so and so is and must be true. Now 
it is granted that a child may be practised in replying to a 
string of questions, until he is able to give you the pat and 
expected answer to each; but I am much inclined to doubt if 
one child in ten thousand actually keeps his hold of a logical 
clue, beyond the reach of one or two immediate dependen- 
cies ; oris ever, in any proper sense, convinced of the truth 
of a conclusion because he has just before assented to the 
series of premises, in which it regularly terminates. We 
ought not, I think, even if we could succeed in doing 
it, ever to attempt to suspend a logical chain, by the 
two ends, within a child's brain — the fastenings will give 
way. 

And what maybe said of trains of inferences, may also 
be affirmed, and for an analogous reason, of all systematic 
or synoptical exhibitions of the principles of the sciences, 



INFANCY. 97 

It is not, in any case, the roots, and trunk, and main 
branches of philosophy, that should be offered to children ; 
but merely its green leaves and blossoms. Digests, and 
compendiums, we should come to in education, as we 
come to the bones in a process of anatomical dissection, 
last of all. To hang up a grim skeleton before a child, 
and tell him, This, my dear, is your new acquaintance — 
Philosophy, — is no very auspicious mode of commencing 
the friendship which we wish to induce. 

Most of the modern writers who have laboured (and 
very commendably,) in providing elementary books for 
children, appear to have adopted the principle which, at a 
first glance, offers itself as natural and reasonable, namely, 
That the axiomatic rudiments, or comprehensive aphorisms 
of a science (because it is from them that every thing else 
results) are the first things to be taught to children ; or, in 
other words, that what is last attained by the cultivators 
of any branch of knowledge, is what we should first impart 
i n teaching it. But this principle, as it stands in contra- 
riety to the process of discovery, for we first employ our- 
selves upon unconnected and incidental facts, and, last of 
all, digest what we have learned in a systematic form, so is 
it, in practice, opposed to the order of nature, in developing 
the human faculties. 

Generalized abstracts, and synoptical analyses of sci- 
ences, highly useful as they are when the learner has al- 
ready become familiar with a multitude of facts, are not 
merely useless, but utterly unintelligible beforehand, and 
while he has few or no stores to be classified. There is 
nothing the human mind grasps with more delight than gen- 
eralization, or classification, when it has already made an 
accumulation of particulars; but nothing from which it 
turns with more repugnance, in its previous state of inani- 
tion. 

Children will eagerly snatch up the bits and crumbs that 
9 



98 HOME EDUCATION: 

fall from the table of philosophy, when they have no appe- 
tite that should impel them to take a place at the board- 
Elementary books, or, to speak more correctly, First 
books, should consist entirely of dainty morsels, and of 
well-gathered flowers ; but nothing should be seen in them 
that is comprehensive ; there should be no synopses, no 
bird's-eye views, no generalization. 

The teacher must, unquestionably, himself be master, in 
a systematic manner, of what he talks about; or he soon 
becomes bewildered, and falls into positive errors ; and 
by the means also of his own acquaintance with the ab- 
struse principles of a science, he will be able so to select 
facts as that, while to the eye they are loose and inciden- 
tal, they may really be the best for preparing the mind to 
admit what is to follow. 

The incidental conveyance of general knowledge, during 
the early period of education, naturally takes its rise from 
two kinds of occasions ; namely, in the first place, from 
the occurrence of words and phrases, in reading or conver- 
sation, of which a child asks explanation ; and, secondly, 
from the occurrence of phenomena' — ordinary or rare, 
which may chance to excite his curiosity. And these two 
occasions of imparting knowledge easily run one into an- 
other ; as when, for instance, the meaning of a word is ask- 
ed — Evaporation, and the thing is exhibited by the holding a 
damp newspaper before the fire. On the contrary, if the 
disappearance of the dew on the window has been observ- 
ed, the technical term may opportunely be connected with 
it, in the way of elliptical interrogation : — What you see 
going on is ? — Evaporation. 

Or some advantage may result from allowing an interval 
of time to pass between the one sort of explanation, and 
the other; for the mind always holds more firmly that 
which it seizes by a rebound, as thus — What does this 
word evaporation mean 1 — The turning of water or of other 



INFANCY. 99 

fluids into steam, or vapour, by the application of heat. 

Any thing damp is dried by? — Evaporation. After the 
lapse of some days, the steam arising from a gravel walk, 
in a sunny aspect, and after a warm shower, is noticed ; 
and the question is briskly put — The rain that is fallen on 
the path is turning into vapour : — what is this called ? The 
answer, if given correctly, at a distance of time, is likely 
to fix itself indelibly in the memory ; and the next step, 
with an intelligent child, will not improbably be some spon- 
taneous effort of generalization ; as when a bottle of wine, 
brought from the cellar, is seen first to be bedewed, and 
then to dry, in the heated dining-room — Is not this too — 
evaporation? And this will lead further: — Can nothing 
but water and liquids be evaporated ? — Yes, we might say 
a solid body, such as a lump of metal, or of brimstone, is 
evaporated, when it is converted into gas, by heat ; but 
then we use another word, and call it — sublimation. 

Yet is all such incidental conveyances of particles of 
scientific information, we should keep clearly in view our 
real intention, which is by no means that of imparting a 
certain amount of scientific knowledge, at a certain age, 
for this is a point of no consequence ; — but we simply 
mean to make a commencement of intellectuality — to keep 
the mind in alliance with reason and nature ; and if any 
thing further need be regarded — to familiarize a little the 
terms and the facts of philosophy, so as to facilitate the ar- 
duous studies of a later period. 

In truth, if this sort of desultory and yet well-directed 
initiation in science is constantly pursued, the more syste- 
matic instruction which must at length follow, may be the 
longer delayed ; and meantime that fresh bloom of the 
faculties may be preserved, which is always more or less 
impaired by laborious studies. 

A very slender apparatus of amusement is found to be 
enough, where children are accustomed, on the one hand, 



100 HOME EDUCATION : 

to much active sport abroad ; and on the other, are intelli- 
gently conversed with, at all hours, by their teacher. Mu- 
nificent grandmammas, and affluent aunts, will, spite of re- 
monstrances, continue to be good customers at the toy-shop ; 
but those who have actually had to do with children, are well 
aware of the fact that no delight is so brief as that caused by 
the possession of an elaborate and costly toy; in truth, the 
pleasure, as to its continuance, seems generally to be in in- 
verse proportion to the sum that has been lavished upon the 
gift. And often, in consideration of the kind donor's feel- 
ings, a little artifice has been used in order to make it 
appear that the splendid article has not become an object 
of indifference or disgust, the very next day after its ar- 
rival. 

A crooked stick of his own finding — the handle of a 
broom — the gardener's cast-off* pruning knife, or a tin mug 
without a bottom, will be hoarded by a child, and be mused 
over, and converted to twenty whimsical purposes, day after 
day, perhaps for weeks, and certainly until after the toy 
which cost what would have fed a poor family as long, has 
been consigned to the lumber-room. 

That principle of the human mind whence springs the 
pleasure derived by children from toys, has already been 
casually adverted to when speaking of the happiness of 
childhood ; and it will demand our particular consideration 
in a following chapter. For the present, let it be observed 
that while, as we have said, and as every mother knows, 
this pleasure bears no proportion whatever to the costliness 
or high finish of a toy, neither can it, by artificial means, 
be made to connect itself with some appended purpose of 
instruction. In addition to what has just been said on this 
point, I must observe that the use of scientific games, and 
learned toys, has prevailed as part of the mistaken modern 
principle of early development and early proficiency. If 
this, that, and the other branch of knowledge must, indeed, 



INFANCY. 101 

be taught at an age when it is hard to fix the attention ex- 
cept upon gew-gaws, then certainly we do well to dress out 
philosophy in May-day style, and every lesson must be an 
artifice. 

But not a whit of this furtive method is necessary, or 
indeed tolerable, with children trained to be reasonable, 
and not tormented too early with systematic teaching. 
Let play be play, and nothing else. On a rainy day I had 
rather see a boy amusing himself with cat's-cradle, than 
with a geometric, or geographical, or historical puzzle. 
The most egregious sort of nonsense that can be put in 
the way of a child is learned nonsense : — sheer nonsense 
is far less likely to pervert the reason and the taste. If 
they are to laugh, let children laugh at the antics of Punch 
and Judith ; not at a masquerade of the signs of the Zo- 
daic; and let the magic lanthorn keep to its old-fashioned 
caricatures.* 

A child who, in his diversions, is called upon to think, is 
defrauded of his right, and is physically injured. Besides, 
that by these same devices an association is formed in his 
mind between ideas of amusement, and ideas of learning, 
which renders his efforts of attention to his studies doubly 
difficult, inasmuch as, while labouring sincerely to keep 
pace with his teacher, he is annoyed by recollections of 
play, that have got an intimate hold of his fancy. 

The real charm of a toy is derived from the power it 
possesses to excite the conceptive faculty ; and hence it 
is that the more it leaves to be filled up by the imagination — 
the ruder it is, so much the keener, and the more lasting is 
the pleasure it affords. On the contrary, an elaborate and 
perfectly representative toy, although it may excite a mo- 
mentary amazement, quickly loses its power to do so, and 

* I take the occasion to mention the excellent use to which, at a rather later 
period, the magic-lanthorn, and the lucernal miscroscope, may be converted, 
in exhibiting the objects of natural history ; and a thousand other things. 

9* 



102 HOME EDUCATION ! 

is discarded. When earring, and gilding, and painting 
have done their best to make it the very image of reality, 
the mind of the child, unconsciously, but in fact, resents 
the officiousness of the artist, who has encroached so far 
upon its own province ; and it turns with fondness (often 
to the wonder of by-standers) to the most misshapen symbol 
of man, or dog, or house, or horse, or cart, and, by the very 
means of the glaring imperfections of this image, finds 
scope for the exercise of its own creative and imaginative 
powers. 

It is confessed that there are some children so vulgar in 
their tastes, and so inert in mind, as to prefer always what 
is most staring in colour, and what leaves nothing to be 
done, or to think of, but vacantly to gaze upon the gorge- 
ous idol of their mindless delight. It is otherwise with 
those whose natural endowments are such as to render 
education in any degree hopeful. 

The principle of the human mind we are now speaking 
of, and which, if well understood, may be turned to great 
account in various ways, is clearly exhibited in the instance 
of the pleasure taken by children in pictorial representa- 
tions. Even the most observant children (I am speaking 
of an early age) take little notice of a highly-finished and 
deep-toned picture, although the subject may be both fa- 
miliar and pleasing. Upon the elaborate canvass the child 
sees only what he can see elsewhere, and with the accom- 
paniment of motion in the objects ; and to him, the merit 
of imitation in the picture is as nothing. Moreover, be- 
sides the disadvantage of the ambiguous distribution of 
light and shade in a finished picture, which more or less 
perplexes the contour of objects, there is, to the child's 
eye, an optical inconvenience in looking at a picture, which 
the adult, by use, has become insensible of, but which, so 
long as it continues, is very annoying. In looking at ob- 
jects at various distances, we learn, very early, so to adjust 



INFANCY. 103 

the axes of the two eyes, by an instantaneous and uncon- 
scious movement of the orbits, as to make them meet in 
the same focus : — whenever this adjustment does not take 
place, we see a nearer object double. Now a child, be- 
cause he has only very recently acquired the habit of so 
adjusting the axes of the eyes, is conscious of a something 
wrong, when, in looking at a picture, he finds that the church 
on a distant hill, to be seen distinctly, instead of requiring an 
altered inclination of the orbits, must be looked at with the 
same angular direction of the eyes that serves for the dogs 
and horses on the foreground. This contradiction of the 
habit he has so lately acquired, not merely perplexes him, 
but produces a general confusion of objects, so as to pre- 
vent his receiving any vivid pleasure from the representa- 
tion. It is obvious, moreover, that a good picture, which 
really looks like nature, will shock the visual habit more 
than an inferior one. An adult has learned how to look at 
objects which he knows to lie all on the same surface ; 
nevertheless, the very same inconvenience is felt, even by 
adults, in looking at a panorama ; for in this case the de- 
ception, being sometimes very perfect, we forget, for a mo- 
ment, that it is a picture we are looking at ; and, in attempt- 
ing to adjust the eyes to the horizon, find the sight pain- 
fully strained. 

It is however on another account, and for a more intel- 
lectual reason, that a child derives far more delight from a 
rude outline of familiar objects, than from a finished pic- 
ture. As a general rule, drawings or engravings in black 
and white, are, by intelligent children, preferred to the same 
coloured ; and an outline is preferred to a shaded drawing, 
and a spirited rough sketch, to a perfect outline. It is 
not Cuyp, or Paul Potter, or Snyders, or Tenieks, or 
even Wilkie, or Landseer, that enchains the infant eye, or 
enchants his fancy ; but rather the windmills, and Zeal- 
anders, the ships, and the horses, of a penny broadside. 



1 04 HOME EDUCATION : 

In the latter class of representations, the rude outline, as 
unlike the reality as it is possible for any two things to be, 
that are professed to resemble each other, just serves to 
quicken the conceptive faculty ; and then it is the mind, so 
set at work, that delights itself with its own creations. It 
is hardly possible to join five scratches on a slate, having 
any relation at all the figure of horse, or cow, so as not in- 
stantly to be recognized by a child of two years old ; — and 
with what intensity of satisfaction will this scratch be con- 
templated ! May we not well admire that construction of 
the human mind which enables it to find pleasure at so 
cheap a rate, and a pleasure so purely intellectual !* 

It is an error teeming with practical mistakes, to think 
of children as if they were sensual chiefly, in their tastes. 
In truth, the disproportion between sense and soul, be- 
tween matter and mind, is usually much greater with the 



* This important principle of the mind — too little regarded in education, will 
again engage our attention. In passing, let me be allowed to point out the 
striking illustration we here find of the immeasurable superiority of the human 
mind, as compared with the most intelligent of the animated orders around 
us ; for the fact of this superiority, as thus illustrated, is not merely a mat- 
ter of admiration, but it indicates some practical inferences, of which we 
should avail ourselves. A highly finished picture has, for a moment, de- 
ceived the eye of an animal ; and the triumphanr artist has exulted in re- 
ceiving so unexceptionable a testimony to the verisimilitude of his work, when 
the living dog has snarled at the painted dog, or puss has jumped at a mouse 
in the canvass. But how ridiculous would be the endeavour to fix the eye of 
the most sagacious dog, for a moment, upon the outline of a man or a dog. 
Yet this very symbol, unlike as it is in size, colour, light and shade, and even 
actual figure, to the reality, instantly fires the mind of the infant, and he at 
once expresses his delight, and gives proof of the truth of his recognition, by 
lisping out the name of the object. The animal, how perfect soever in sense 
and organ, has little conceptive faculty : to the. eye of the brute, therefore, 
what is not like enough to a known object to be actually mistaken for it, is as 
nothing — it has no symbolic meaning : to the human eye, on the contrary, 
the faintest resemblance, or the very remotest analogy, is enough, and more 
than enough, to put all the faculties a-working, and to send the mind in upon 
itself, where, even in the earliest season of its development, it finds inex- 
haustible materials of pleasure. 



INFANCY. 105 

same individual, in childhood, than it is at an adult age. 
The want of culture, or the long continued pressure of ne- 
cessity, or the indulgence of sensual propensities, often ob - 
literates the intellectuality and the moral sensitiveness 
which had belonged to the child, so that the man at thirty 
is, in a philosophic sense, much less remote from the brute, 
than he had been at four or five. The vivid pleasure de- 
rived by children from the objects that surround them, in- 
stead of indicating the prevalence of the animal part of our 
nature, is directly a proof of the vivacity and supremacy of 
its intellectual elements. A child's happiness is the hap- 
piness of the soul, much more than of the body ; — his joys, 
instead of staying in the sense, go through and through 
him ; and just as a babe of three months old smiles all 
over, when it smiles at all, and kicks with merriment, so 
does a child enjoy what he enjoys, with a throb of his every 
faculty. 

I must return for a moment to the subject of graphic in- 
struction, as peculiarly adapted to promote the objects of 
early education. Far more use might be made of this 
means of quickening the mind than is often attempted ; 
and let me be allowed to remind young mothers (and young 
ladies) that, in practical value, the ability to sketch rapidly, 
in a characteristic manner, all sorts of common objects, 
vastly outweighs some four or five of those accomplish- 
ments to which years are devoted in youth, and which are 
usually laid aside, and lost, when the duties of domestic 
life are entered upon. Prints, it is true, may be purchased ; 
but beside many objections to which they are liable, and 
their cost, if provided in sufficient number and variety, it is 
found that a fresh sketch, adapted to the occasion, and 
suited to a child's age and taste, imparts more pleasure, 
and subserves better the ends intended. 

A mother, qualified to use her pencil in this manner, may, 
without labour, bring all the most familiar and the most 



106 HOME EDUCATION: 

striking forms of nature and of art before the eye of a 
child ; and thus, not merely impart various information (a 
secondary object) but feed and furnish the earliest de- 
veloped of the faculties — the conceptive ; and at the same 
time bring into action the powers of observation and dis- 
crimination ; and all this may be done without, in the 
slightest degree stimulating or straining the faculties : the 
brain is not worked in any such amusements. 

By the same simple means, the kindly emotions and 
placid sympathies of a child's heart may be set a-going, if a 
mother's pencil is equal to the task, and it is not a very dif- 
ficult one, of roughly sketching the employments, incidents, 
and accidents of common life — the trades and occupations 
of men, and the domestic drama, if the phrase may be used, 
and the mishaps and catastrophes of the soldier, the sailor, 
the traveller. A folio of such sketches, swelled from year 
to year by daily additions, would be an invaluable treasure 
in a family, and might descend to the mammas of several 
generations ; and how much more creditable to the hand 
that produced it, than the painted albums, and the bristol- 
board frippery, that so often load a drawing-room table V 

If I mention music, only in passing, and in a word, as a 
capital means of early education — the education of non- 
development and of pleasure, it is not because I think lit- 
tie of its importance, but simply that I do not venture to 
speak in detail, of what I do not practically understand. It 
must however be confessed that, highly desirable as is 
music as a means of pleasurable excitement, the full bene- 
fit of it is restricted to those whom nature has specially 
endowed in this behalf, as well with ear as voice, and with 
the musical soul. There are families, not wanting in other 
endowments, but who want what art cannot supply — an 
organic aptitude in relation to melody. 

There can be no doubt that poetry is to be employed as 



INFANCY. 107 

a principal means of intellectual and moral culture, during 
the first period of education ; and by I'OETry, as adapted 
to infancy and early childhood, I intend severally—rhyme 
—rhythm — ornamented description of familiar objects, and 
condensed moral sentiment. Each of these elements has 
its special use for the purpose now in view ; but it need not 
be said that the higher elements of poetry, that is to say 
whatever the adult mind regards as constituting its para, 
mount excellence, are excluded when we are speaking of 
verse for children. Not indeed as if poetry for children 
should be unpoetic, or of cheap manufacture ; but that it 
should tread flowery meads, rather than climb the moun- 
tain path, or soar to the skies. 

No one who has had to do with children can need to be 
told that both rhyme and rhythm are of great utility, consi- 
dered only as organic means of fixing certain series of 
words and sentences in the memory. This is understood 
in every nursery ; nor does there appear to be any back- 
wardness in applying so obvious and easy a means to all 
purposes of instruction. I would, for my own part, large- 
ly employ the rhythmical medium for conveying whatever 
has any manifest analogy with pleasurable imaginative sen- 
timents : but then, and for the very purpose of securing to 
it its greatest possible effect, on this its proper ground, I 
would (notwithstanding certain specious reasons of conve- 
nience) entirely refrain from the use of rhyme and metre 
as a mere implement of memory, and for the conveyance 
of dry facts ; — such as terms of science, dates, and the ab- 
stract rules of grammar, or the like. These seemingly 
useful devices — the gingling grammars — the gingling geo- 
graphies — the doggrel histories and chronologies, such as — 



Charles the First was his son, and a martyr made ; 
Charles the Second, his son, was a comical blade. 



108 home education: 

or stanzas interrogative — such as^— 

And who was by an arrow slain, 
While chasing the fleet stag in vain, 
And left his brother next to reign ? 

are to be rejected as vitiating the taste ; while, although 
to a certain, and a very limited extent, this species of dog- 
grel aids the memory, it quashes the mind, and obstructs 
that intelligent grasp of facts which is really of importance, 
while the lodgement of facts in the memory may readily be 
secured by more fit means. For example, after history 
has been read (and it is of no use at all previously) and 
when distinct ideas are attached to names, then the series 
of persons and succession of events may with great ease 
and clearness be fixed in the mind by frequent references 
to a well constructedhome-made chronological chart ; and 
an intelligent child — intelligently dealt with, will then spurn 
the toy history-book, as fit for babies only; and if we are 
thinking of babies, they had much better listen to the — Who 
did kill cock Robin? than the — Who did kill king Rufus 1 

Verse for children should always embrace some sub- 
stantial element of poetry; — it should present, what is 
really poetic of its kind, however familiar. Contrary to 
what the inexperienced might suppose, and to what many 
writers of verses for children appear to have taken for 
granted, it is by no means the most prosaic, or the most 
nakedly intelligible pieces that are chosen and de- 
lighted in by children, when left to make their own 
selection. What has just been said in relation to toys, 
and to the products of the pencil, is true also of verse ; 
— that is to say the very same principle of the human mind 
comes into operation. Children, in almost all cases, are 
the most delighted with that which the most immediately 
quickens the conceptive faculty, and which leaves much 
to be done by the imagination ; while that which is 



INFANCY. 109 

frigidly exact, and merely true, does not arouse the mind ; 
and, on the other hand, that which is gorgeously descrip- 
tive, and highly coloured, fails entirely to attract a child's 
ear. Strange as it may seem, I think it is generally true 
that children will sooner listen to what is purely didactic, 
if the sentiment and language be at all within their reach, 
than to a vivid and elaborate description of natural scenery. 
The poetry which children choose is that which, with a light 
descriptive brevity, brings the familiar aspects of the visible 
world before the fancy ; and that also, which is simply and 
briskly narrative, and which is enlivened by turns of hu- 
mour, and deepened by just moral sentiments, and especial- 
ly by touches of pity. 

We should by no means lose sight of poetry as the 
medium for imparting, in the easiest manner, a knowledge 
of the less colloquial portion of the mother tongue ; and 
particularly of the entire class of epithets and descriptive 
terms. These, as I shall have occasion hereafter to show, 
it is very desirable to furnish the mind with in rich abun- 
dance, and as a main part of its early culture. 

With these objects in view, we cannot wish to see poetry 
for children broken down into monosyllables, or confined 
to the range of the nursery vocabulary. The wealth and 
compass of the mother tougue is to be acquired, not 
by fingering a dictionary, or by committing definitions 
of words to memory ; but by the gradual and incessant 
extension of that unconscious inductive process, which 
goes on when words, in their true and infinitely varied 
connections, are presented to the mind — are heard, a 
first, a second, and a third time; and not understood 
until, by little and little, a meaning, more and more 
precise, clusters about the sound. Some teachers, and in- 
telligent mothers, exhibit a very needless alarm lest, in 
what a child reads, or commits to memory, there should oc- 
cur any words to which he attaches no meaning, or a 

10 



110 HOME EDUCATION : 

wrong one. But what, we may ask, is the real mischief 
that ensues in any such instance ? Is the circumstance of 
his not understanding a particular term, which he happens 
to hear, or to read, any greater harm than his knowing no- 
thing, at present, of the thousands of words which do not 
come in his way 3 or if we think of the single passage in 
which some such unknown word occurs, it does not always 
follow that no meaning will be gathered from it, for want of 
the one unknown word ; and besides, the understanding of 
a sentence, or paragraph, implies much more than the abi- 
lity to tell what each separate word means ; so that the er- 
ror, or the deficiency, in regard to one or two words, will 
often be found to bear a small proportion to the general 
confusion or misapprehension that attaches to the structure 
of the sentence, or to the dependence of ideas through a pa- 
ragraph. An unknown word in a sentence is like a deep 
shadow in a landscape : — just on that spot the eye discri- 
minates nothing ; but many a sentence, the meaning of 
every single word of which a child can give you, is all dim 
as twilight, or absolutely dark as night. 

Words learned in the first instance by formal explanation, 
are found to be peculiarly liable to ambiguities of appre- 
hension, or to be substituted one for another ; and they 
continue to be the last words in the language that promptly 
and appropriately occur, when wanted in extemporaneous 
discourse. With a view therefore to an ulterior advantage, 
it is desirable that the wide wealth of the language should 
come into the mind in the natural order ; that is to say, by 
a gradual familiarity, first with the mere sounds — not un- 
derstood ; and then with the meaning, by many steps of 
approximation. 

Poetry for children should then be freely sprinkled with 
long words, and with words of less frequent occurrence. 
What we have more to guard against than hard words, or 
than tropes, or bold metaphors (which children often catch 
with ease and delight) are either sentiments, of a kind with 



INFANCY. Ill 

which they can have no sympathy, or notions and modes 
of expression that are abstruse and philosophical. 

It would be an easy, though somewhat invidious task, to 
find instances of this sort of miscalculation among the very 
best samples of poetry intended for children. I do not 
mean to say — far from it — that, in such cases, any serious 
mischief is likely to accrue from the error, or that parents 
ought to exclude whatever appears liable to exception on 
this ground ; but merely wish to state the principle, that a 
monosyllabled stanza may, by presenting an adult senti- 
ment, or an abstruse notion, pass clean over a child's lips, 
without communicating one particle of its meaning : or 
that what, to ourselves, may be highly poetic, connected 
with the circumstances, or the manners, or the aspects of 
infancy, and which, when elegantly expressed may delight 
us intensely, will probably be as unintelligible to a child as 
a chorus from Sophocles. Lines such as the following, 
on, or about, an Infant's Evening Prayer, are adapted, in 
fact, to the mother, not to the infant : — 

Ere thy lips could a lengthened sentence frame, 

Or utter a perfect tone, 
We taught thee to lisp thy Maker's name, 

And bow at his heavenly throne. 

The boldest figures are readily understood and relished 
by very young children : thus the verse which so happily 
paraphrases the imagery of the 19th Psalm : — 



When from the chambers of the east, 

His morning race begins, 
He never tires nor stops to rest, 

But round the world he shines:— 



needs very little, if any explanation, to lodge it fairly in the 
understanding of the youngest child who can lisp it. But 
very many words must be spent before a much older child 



112 home education: 

would attach a meaning to phrases so utterly abstruse as 
those which make up the subjoined Mother's Lullaby, and 
which must be regarded as intended solely for her edifi- 
cation : — 

Still be it mine through life's long varied morrow, 
Thus every thorn from thy couch to remove ; 

Guard thee from danger, and shield thee from sorrow, 
And love thee, as mothers alone ever love. 

It would seem hypercritical to specify a great deal of 
what is given to children, to read and to learn, and what 
may, in itself, be very beautiful ; but which embodies the 
feelings and conceptions of the mother about her child, 
rather than of the child itself. In the following verse 
on the Crocus, the first line contains a word that perhaps 
may not be understood, without an explanation — easily 
given; but it may be questioned whether the abstraction 
and the prosopopeia embodied in the last line, although 
no hard word occurs in it, could easily be made intel- 
ligible to a child of the age for which the piece seems in- 
tended : — 

Down in my solitude under the snow, 
Where nothing cheering can reach me j 

Here without light to see how I grow, 
I'll trust to nature to teach me. 

So long, however, as what is vulgar, or glaringly absurd, 
is excluded, and also what is false in fact or sentiment, we 
need not be very nice in making our selection of poetry 
for children ; inasmuch as it is always true that what does 
them no harm, does them some good, so far at least as it 
renders the compass of the language, and the various com- 
binations of phrases familiar to the ear. A squeamish or 
hypercritical taste would too much diminish the existing 
stock of verse, adapted to childhood. 



INFANCY. 113 

Children are, more or less, alive to wit, as well as to 
humour and mere drollery ; and when genuine wit is com- 
pacted in epigrammatic couplets, and is of a sort which 
they can apprehend, it has a great use in quickening the 
faculties. Humour and drollery are contrast : — wit is 
analogy, to perceive which is one of the best preparatory 
exercises of the faculty of abstraction. Intelligent chil- 
dren will often catch a stroke of wit, before they exhibit 
any relish for humour. They may, indeed, be amused by 
a sprightly narrative, while the humour that is strung upon 
the thread of the story entirely escapes their notice. Tt is thus 
that John Gilpin is laughed at by children, as a droll 
adventure ; but is not relished on account of the innume- 
rable strokes of good humoured satire with which it is 
fraught. 

We sometimes find children making a more rigid de- 
mand for reason and truth, in what is offered to them for 
their amusement, than we are ourselves accustomed to 
make, or than we make in what we provide for them ; 
and it is an occurrence that should be avoided, if possible, 
for a child, after inquiry, to be forced to reject, as sheer 
nonsense or absurdity, any thing which his teacher had put 
in his way. This sort of revulsion of the mind really, but 
insensibly, disparages a teacher's influence. 

It need hardly be said, that satire, when in a form which 
children can understand, should be absolutely kept out of 
their sight and hearing : it is addressed directly to the ma- 
lign sentiments, and can in no case be of happy influence, 
even when, seemingly, the force of it bears wholly upon some 
form of vice or folly. Satire is useful (if at all) in dealing 
with those who, having again and again heard reason, and 
spurned it, may perhaps be reclaimed by shame. But 
this is never the condition of children — or, at least, of well- 
trained children. There are, however, certain celebrated 
works, mainly satirical, but yet in so occult a manner, as 
10* 



114 HOME EDUCATION : 

that this pungent element passes harmless and unnoticed 
through your minds. Books of this sort, (if otherwise not 
objectionable,) may be listened to by children as mere 
entertainment. Such are Don Quixote, Gil Bias, and 
Gulliver's Travels : — the poison is a kernel within a 
stone. 

Some children, apart from task-work, and without cost 
of infantile hilarity, may, during the period ending at the 
completion of the seventh or eighlh year, have acquired a 
considerable amount of general information ; — others may 
have learned little or nothing. This disparity is, how- 
ever, not to be cared for by the teacher. Much less 
should she labour to lessen it by using any stimulating 
methods with those who lag behind ; for this cannot but be 
injurious. Whether the child of slow apprehension will 
always remain in the rear of others, or may hereafter over- 
take and pass his competitors is uncertain : — if he does, 
then our anxiety has been groundless — if not, fruitless ; for 
this backwardness, in such a case, is the indication of 
an original intellectual deficiency which no efforts of ours 
can supply. 

Infancy, as I have said, is, emphatically, Nature's sea- 
son ; and parents may be thoroughly contented, so far, 
who see their children reach the verge that separates 
infancy from childhood in blooming health — happy, in 
habit and in temper ; with transparent dispositions, with a 
curiosity alive, with a moderate command of language ; 
and, if I may be allowed the figure, with a lap full of 
the blossoms of philosophy, unsorted and plucked as they 
have come to hand. 

One might even say less than this ; and yet affirm, that 
the period of infancy has passed auspiciously, if only the 
cheek be ruddy, the eye sparkling, the sympathies prompt 
and kind, and the habit of implicit obedience thoroughly 
formed. Happy are the parents who are devising the more 



INFANCY. 115 

elaborate processes of education, and are just commencing 
what may be called the business of instruction, with 
children of seven and eight years old, of whom as much as 
has now been stated might be affirmed, — and nothing 
more. 

In a word, if the anxious inquiry of some parents, in re- 
lation to infancy and early childhood is — What are the most 
effectual means of development 1 the inquiry which I would 
substitute for such a question is of this sort — How shall 
we best pass over the same period without any development 
but what is wholly spontaneous ? 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SECOND PERIOD OF EDUCATION. 

The points to be adverted to in the present chapter, 
although more numerous and comprehensive than those 
which claimed to be noticed in the last, may be more 
hastily touched here ; inasmuch as they constitute, seve- 
rally, the subjects either of the following chapters, or of 
another work. At present I intend little more than to notice 
some of the more striking intellectual characteristics of the 
season of life we have now in view. 

Once again, and at this point of our progress, I feel in- 
clined to put the question to parents who are intending a 
home education, whether they possess strength of purpose, 
such as shall enable them to witness, tranquilly and without 
mortification, a display of the intellectual exploits, and va- 
rious acquirements of children who may have been hurried 
forward on the principle of development, while their own, 
with faculties still held in store, are compelled to retire, 
altogether, from the ground of competition 1 This forti- 
tude is indispensable to whoever would pursue a consistent 
course of intellectual training, on the principles recom- 
mended in the present work : and not only will the same 
firmness be called for during the early, but also during the 
later periods of the course ; for the process we are de- 
vising intends nothing short of the full expansion and the 



CHILDHOOD. 117 

vigorous exercise of the mind, when it reaches the latest 
season of its natural perfection. 

And it should moreover now be said that, in laying down 
a plan of regular instruction, as commencing about the 
eighth year, regard must be had at once to a child's rate of 
natural capacity (so far as it can be surmised) and to his 
probable destination in life. Education is, in fact, of two 
kinds, broadly distinguishable the one from the other : the 
first being that method, and that amount of instruction 
which is practicable in the case of those whose intellectual 
culture must be concluded in their fourteenth or fifteenth 
year, and who, thenceforward, are to be occupied with the 
engagements of common life : the other kind of training is 
that which is designed to extend a full seven years further; 
and which includes whatever can serve to give the highest 
possible advantage to such endowments as nature may have 
conferred on the individual. 

If the former sort of culture be all that can be aimed at, 
there is then assuredly not much time to be lost within the 
six or seven years we have in prospect ; and the several 
processes of instruction ought to be advanced at as quick 
a pace as will consist with a child's health and cheerful- 
ness. 

But in the latter case, the period from the eighth to the 
twelfth year may be regarded as a second infancy, during 
which there is still to be a leaning to the s^de of repression, 
rather than to that of excitement. 

Now inasmuch as it would be a cumbrous method, in- 
volving repetitions, to exhibit these two species of mental 
discipline separately, it must be understood that, in the 
course of instruction recommended, it is mainly the second, 
or more perfect scheme which I have in view, and which 
will require to be so far lowered or abated as may be found 
in practice necessary, when the shorter term of education 
is to be calculated upon. 



118 HOME EDUCATION '. 

The season of early childhood, as compared with the 
preceding years of infancy, is distinguished, as well in 
other respects, as by a distinct consciousness of the pas- 
sage of time ; and this simple circumstance renders a dif- 
ferent mode of treatment necessary. A child, before its 
fifth year, and even later, if in perfect health, does not 
know that the day is long ; for the infant mind glides down 
the stream of moments, conscious only of the present, and 
altogether without thought of periods, intervals, and meas- 
ured seasons of duration : — the infant mind has no weari- 
ness, or disquietude, connected with the slow numbering of 
hours, days, weeks, months. But at length, and in pro- 
portion as the mind acquires the habit of pondering upon 
its own condition — of reflecting, it becomes an occupant of 
duration, and learns to measure the eras of the day by the 
periodic changes of its own feelings. 

This mental revolution must then be provided for by 
stated occupations. Deprived of this means of diverting 
the uneasy consciousness of time, the mind either sinks 
into inanity, or seeks relief in the devices of a mischiev- 
ous activity. The listlessness of a child is altogether 
a different thing from the inapplicable thoughtlessness of 
an infant ; and it is a state of mind which should always 
be relieved. As soon as Time is felt, the mind and the 
body have only the alternative of being employed, or idle ; 
and idleness is not a passive, but an active ill. 

At the entrance upon childhood, there is therefore need- 
ed the forms, at least, if not much of the substance of se- 
rious application. There must be school hours, and a cer- 
tain regard paid to the clock, even in relation to amuse- 
ments. As to the two, or perhaps three, hours of the day, 
at twice, which are spent in school, it will be easy to fill 
them up with a jog-trot application to the mechanical 
branches of education. But here, a capital distinction be- 
tween school and home education must be pointed out, and 



CHILDHOOD. 119 

should be clearly understood, which is this, namely, that, 
in the former, the entire mental culture, or nearly so, has 
to be conveyed during the school hours, and those times 
that are devoted to the learning of tasks. It is requisite 
therefore to have recourse to whatever excitements or de- 
vices may serve to accelerate the process of learning, 
and to condense the greatest possible amount of acquire- 
ments and of proficiency, within the narrow limits to 
which the teacher is confined : there must be a stress laid 
upon school hours. 

But every thing is different at home ; or at least in a 
home such as we have now in idea before us. At home, 
the mental culture — the better part of the education, is car- 
ried on, not exclusively, and perhaps not chiefly (and 
scarcely at all during the period of early childhood) in 
school hours. These are times of tranquil, unintellectual 
occupation — the resting times, as well of the body as of 
the mind. As there can be no motive whatever for hur- 
rying forward the ordinary branches of mechanical educa- 
tion, such as reading, writing, arithmetic, drawing, music, 
which, without doubt, will all be duly acquired as early as 
need be wished, they may be leisurely pursued, to the entire 
exclusion of what, to use an expressive French term, we 
might call empressement. The common acquirements 
serve to occupy the hands, the eyes, and the organic powers 
of the mind, while its proper force is unspent, and while 
the animal force is husbanded by a temporary restraint. 

If there be any modern improvements, or any ingenious 
devices which tend to abridge the labour of learning and of 
teaching the mechanical branches of education, let them be 
freely admitted ; for we can be no losers by a saving of 
time. But no such means are desirable if the intention of 
them is to hurry these processes forward at a quicker rate. 
If, by a certain method a child may be taught to write 
eventually better than otherwise he would, let it be adopt- 



120 HOME EDUCATION '. 

ed ; but if the alleged advantage of a new method be that a 
child may be made to write like a master, in a dozen les- 
sons, then we say that we wish for no such rail-road velo- 
city, and are pretty sure that it is not to be attained without 
a high-pressure, such as we totally exclude from our home 
system. 

We suppose then that, during the period of early child- 
hood, or between the eighth and the twelfth years, the or- 
dinary branches of education are resorted to for the pur- 
pose of finding so much sedentary employment, every day, 
as may be really desirable ; and that this degree of atten- 
tion to these necessary acquirements will, in the end, fully 
secure a proper proficiency in them. These matters are 
not the objects of any solicitude ; and if parents retain, in 
their own hands, whatever belongs to the higher culture of 
the mind, they may readily obtain any assistance they may 
need in imparting the vulgar rudiments of learning. 

To return to what properly belongs to the culture of the 
mind. — The period of early childhood is especially the 
time of oral instruction ; for we still hold books under 
an interdict, and are extremely jealous of tasks. During 
the first of the three eras of education, knowledge is con- 
veyed by the teacher's being ever ready to meet the freak- 
ish curiosity of the infant mind, with a something more 
than itself seeks or intends. During the second of these 
eras, a further amount of knowledge is imparted, and the 
expanding faculties are exercised, by that sort of defined 
instruction which the teacher originates, and which he con- 
trols, and limits, and in conducting which he secures ani- 
mated attention, and forfends listlessness, by the vivacity 
of his manner, the versatility of his methods, and the ferti- 
lity of his invention. But during the third era the learner 
is called upon to take up his full share of the general labour 
of education ;— he is to do at least as much for himself, as 



CHILDHOOD. 121 

his instructor does for him ; and the two, with a good un- 
derstanding of their several parts, and a firm resolution to 
overcome all difficulties, ascend the arduous height, hand 
in hand. 

I have said that early childhood is the time for oral in- 
struction, and that, whereas heretofore this was desultory 
and fortuitous, it must now become in some degree syste- 
matic, comprehensive, and precise. Indeed an indication 
of that natural development of the mind which takes place 
about the ninth year, and which we may name as the second 
characteristic of early childhood (a consciousness of time, 
being the first) is an endeavour to connect and arrange, in 
some way, its acquired stock of ideas. It is this tendency 
of the mind toward order, and this desire to grasp conse- 
cutively, and in connexion, what it already holds in frag- 
ments, that prompts the many questions which are put by 
an intelligent child, and which are usually prefaced by a 
statement of facts, seemingly at variance. Parents mu3t 
have noticed the circumstance that a child whose curiosity 
is at all intelligent, much less often asks a naked and insu- 
lated question, than propounds a difficulty. Now these dif- 
ficulties are, for the most part, instances of the apparent 
disagreement of things which, in a child's view of the whole 
case, ought to fit; and accordingly he begins in this sort 
of way — Papa, you said so and so; but how is it then that 
I see so and so 1 The very common question, How can it 
be ? indicates a tendency of the mind toward induction, or 
simplification, or generalization, as the case may be ; and 
we may safely infer, from any such indication of nature, 
that the process of mental culture should now assume a 
more systematic form. 

It is only a few children of the rarest promise that very 
eagerly demand this sort of satisfaction ; but there are few 
who seem totally indifferent to it, when placed before them ; 
and the intelligent teacher will be prompt to avail himself 

11 



122 HOME EDUCATION : 

of the mind's first struggles, be they never so feeble, to ob- 
tain the comfort of internal order. There is, at this pe- 
riod, a tendency in the mind to crystallization, and the part 
of the teacher is to promote it, and to guard it from dis- 
turbance. 

Now the most obvious principles of mental order, are 
those relating to time, place, form, and causation ; and 
there is something which may be done in connexion with 
each of these principles, for giving consistency to a child's 
acquirements and conceptions ; as thus : — 

A child of six years old readily listens to single stories, 
drawn promiscuously from sacred or profane history, or to 
descriptions of places and scenes ; but he never sponta- 
neously desires to connect any such insulated narrations, 
one with another ; and it must be accounted an ill-judged 
attempt to impart any thing which the mind feels no want 
of. You may, if you please, compel a child to commit 
dates and summaries to memory ; but the process antici- 
pates the course of nature, and is a drudgery worse than 
useless : — the mind as yet does not grasp either time or 
space. 

A year or two later, however, these very notions begin 
to be sought after ; or when intelligibly presented, are 
gladly admitted. In addition therefore to the single inci- 
dents, or the scattered leaves of history, we may now con- 
vey some general conception of the flux of ages, and of 
the progression of human affairs : and this conception may 
be mechanically aided by the use of a clear and well con- 
structed chronological chart ; the principle of which, if not 
fully understood at once, may be illustrated by placing be- 
fore the learner a chart of his personal history, marked off 
in divisions of months and years. But it need not be said 
that, in the use of means such as these, our intention is far 
from being that of enabling a child to tell you, in a twink- 
ling, and to the astonishment of a company, who were the 



CHILDHOOD. 123 

consuls at Rome in the year of the death of Epaminondas ; 
or who was the Greek emperor at the time of the battle of 
Hastings. Nothing of this sort of accomplishment is 
worth a straw ; — at least it is not worth the labour it must 
cost, as well the learner as the teacher. What we aim at 
is to enable a child to grasp and to adjust the notion of 
time within his own mind, just as far as nature impels him 
to do so. 

Or again, it is seldom earlier than the ninth year that a 
child begins to labour with the notions of remote space — 
space out of sight, or that he connects any just idea with 
the map which he is condemned to pore over. But when 
once the conception of terrestrial extension has fairly 
lodged itself in his mind, then our conversations concern- 
ing the natural wonders of different countries, and the per- 
sonal appearance and manners of the several families of 
man, and the species of the animal and vegetable orders, 
may assume a more digested form ; and, by the aid of the 
terrestrial globe — always before the eye, that which here- 
tofore was only so many scattered particles, falls into shape 
and order, and the mind not only knows so and so ; but 
holds and commands what it knows. Of very little utility, 
as I think, is the accomplishment, for a child, of being 
able to tell you that Canton is Long. 113 deg. 7 min. 
East; and N. Lat. 33 deg. 8 min. but it is of solid advan- 
tage to him to have obtained so clear a conception of the 
position and figure of countries, as that he can sketch the 
outline of any, on his slate, with tolerable accuracy, from 
memory. 

Once more, and to speak of the third of our above- 
mentioned categories, namely — form. During the last 
year of the first period of life, much tranquil excitement of 
the faculties may be derived from exhibitions and descrip- 
tions of the more striking and beautiful forms of the vege- 



124 home education: 

table and animal kingdoms : yet in conveying this sort of 
information we adhere to no rule, except that of chance, or 
of immediate entertainment. But before the expiration of 
the second period, something may have been done with the 
view of giving the mind a grasping hold of the details of 
natural history, by the aid of classification. Just so much 
effort of abstraction as is required in admitting this kind of 
aid to the memory, the mind is capable of about the 
eleventh year : and indeed, if the teacher will but conde- 
scend to put out of sight and hearing all the apparatus, and 
to exclude all the pollysyllabled nomenclature of scien- 
tific classification, whether botanical or zoological, and will 
bring forward such grounds of distinction only as the un- 
sophisticated notions of children may consist with, and 
such as are derived, principally, from manifest resem- 
blances of form, they will, in most instances, receive a 
lively pleasure from the exercise, and will show how agree- 
able to the human mind is any sort of simplification, and 
how fond it is of order. 

Lastly ; it is in relation to cause and effect that the mind 
spontaneously, and at an early period, indicates its love of 
order and of fitness. The question — What is the reason 1 
which is every day propounded by an intelligent boy, is an 
indication of the opening of the rational nature, and leaves 
us in no doubt as to the change which is called for in the 
mode of culture. 

In the present chapter I do nothing more than just men- 
tion those intellectual characteristics of the period of early 
childhood which call for the methods of treatment that are 
hereafter to be specified. As to the relation of Cause and 
Effect, a large part of the mental training, at a later period, 
bears upon it ; and we shall find it necessary to pursue the 
subject in its different bearings, at considerable length. 
The glory of the human mind (intellectually) and the spring 
of its advancements in the higher and the lower range of 



CHILDHOOD. 125 

philosophy, is this insatiable appetite to pursue the links of 
causation : that system of education therefore must be 
deemed very defective, and must be accounted a practical 
calumny upon our nature, which does not mainly concern 
itself with a propensity so strong, and so ennobling. "With- 
out intending to inculpate practices and methods of train- 
ing which perhaps could not be changed in schools without 
some serious compromise, I may at least say that home 
education will secure to itself a high recommendation if, 
on this point, it be able to adhere more closely to the mani- 
fest intentions of nature. 

I will freely grant that a good school education does give 
some useful exercise to the faculty of abstraction, and to 
the reasoning powers ; but I confidently believe that vastly 
less is actually effected in this way than is desirable, and 
than might with ease be accomplished. Notwithstanding 
the many motives of passion and interest that pervert the 
judgments of mankind, we should see truth and reason pre- 
vail more steadily and rapidly than we do, if the rational 
faculty were systematically trained in early life. This is 
my strong conviction ; and it is a chief motive with me in 
bringing forward my notions of home education. 

Something then we suppose now to be attempted, with 
the view of meeting the instinct of the mind in striving to 
connect and arrange its scattered ideas, especially in re- 
spect of time, space, form, and causation. Meanwhile, 
and after a little system has been introduced, along with the 
various and insulated facts that are everyday accumulated, 
the style of desultory conversation, and the kind of books 
that are perused, will be insensibly conformed, more and 
more, to the symmetry and precision of actual science ; so 
that before the period when philosophy comes to be pro- 
fessedly and assiduously cultivated, there will be little in 
such studies that can seem utterly strange. The encyclo- 

11* 



126 HOME EDUCATION t 

paedia of human knowledge will have been fingered, in all 
parts, before it comes to be consecutively read. 

It is a great point gained, in my view, to give the mind a 
desultory familiarity with every subject to which at length 
the attention is to be strenuously directed ; for it is by this 
means, chiefly, that we are to provide against those rigid 
intellectual habits, and those exclusive professional tastes, 
which, when once formed, are seldom if ever broken up, 
and which render high attainments so often the means 
rather of narrowing, than of expanding the mind. How 
often are accomplished men the bigots of the particular 
branch of literature, or philosophy, which they profess ; and 
never reach, or wish to reach, the serene height whence 
a view is had of the broad expanse of the world of mind. 
I think this contractedness of taste seldom gains entrance 
with those who, early, and during an entire period of their 
mental course, have been led every day to hold easy con- 
verse with whatever is intellectual, how diverse soever in 
object and spirit. 

At the time of the transition from infancy to childhood, 
the intellectual, as well as the moral treatment requires to 
be modified in conformity with the newly developed power 
of entertaining reflex and complex ideas. 

An affectionate child of five years, who is yet an infant 
according to our distribution of ages, loves and reveres a 
kind and judicious mother ; but three years later he comes 
into the recollection that he has a kind and wise mother ; 
and this reflex consciousness, added to his heretofore spon- 
taneous affection, becomes the spring of new emotions, 
and the impulse of new modes of action. This topic how- 
ever, belongs to another branch of the general subject of 
education, and must be passed, with a hint only — that there 
is room for a nice discretion in just saying enough, and not 
too much, with the view of giving form and specific direc- 



CHILDHOOD. 127 

tion to the undefined evanescent feelings that are evolved 
in a child's inind about the time we are now speaking of. 
Incalculable indeed is the power of words, when sparingly 
and skilfully employed, for the purpose of aiding the na- 
tural metamorphoses of the mind. The soul, in the critical 
moments of its physical history, may be teeming with emo- 
tions that it knows not how to define, and which, wanting 
definition, it may lose its hold of. It is indeed an inex- 
pedient practice to be often talking a child into a per- 
suasion of its parents' goodness and wisdom, or of its own 
felicity ; or to be telling him that he ought to be very 
happy. But without approaching any thing so ill-judged,, 
occasions may be looked for, and seized, when the very 
sentiment which the mind is labouring with, and would fain 
express, may be placed intelligibly before it, so as not 
again to be lost. It is thus especially that the filial senti- 
ment may, with happy effect, be defined and formally 
commended to the custody of the understanding, at the 
time when it begins to be indistiuctly felt in a reflex man- 
ner. The parental love is the light and warmth of the little 
world of home ; and it may be felt and enjoyed, just as we 
feel and enjoy the temperature and the diffused illumination 
of an overset summer's day, without our thinking of the 
source of both. But it is well that the bright fount itself 
should be regarded, in its individual power, so as we be- 
hold the sun in the midst of a cloudless sky. 

But to return. There is developed, during the years of 
early childhood, a consciousness of the intellectual state, 
which, if we avail ourselves of it, becomes the leading im- 
pulse of advancement. The mind now learns to pass up 
and down upon the course it has travelled, and to measure 
its way ; and although that principle of non-excitement, 
which we hold to, forbids that this new feeling should be 
much worked upon, it may be gently cherished, and aided, 



128 HOME EDUCATION I 

so far as may serve to quicken, without stimulating the 
active powers. 

The power also of entertaining more trains of ideas than 
one, simultaneously, on which so much of practical effi- 
ciency depends, in all walks of life, begins to develop itself 
about the same time ; and must be watched and elicited ; 
but this too is a subject of such importance as to demand 
separate treatment. Many of the points of contrast be- 
tween a cultured and an uncultured mind — between the 
vulgar and the refined, turn upon the training that may 
have been bestowed upon this very power. 

The moral and the intellectual branches of education 
are again involved in another characteristic of childhood, 
as distinguished, on the one side, from infancy, and on the 
other, from a stage three or four years more advanced. 
What I mean is that penetrating and instinctive discern- 
ment of the character and motives of those around them, 
which is not often possessed earlier than the fifth year, 
and which is often lost, or set wrong, about the twelfth. 
It is true that the youngest infants sometimes exhibit an 
instinctive complacency, or repugnancy, toward those about 
them ; but it is not generally found that these likings and 
dislikings have any correspondence with the real disposi- 
tions, or merits, of individuals : they seem rather to take 
their rise from merely accidental peculiarities of the per- 
sonal appearance. 

There is however something far more just and deep in 
those discriminations of character that are often made by 
children of seven and nine years old. Not indeed that all 
children have any such discernment of spirits ; but few are 
totally destitute of it; and more than a few (girls especially, 
whose perceptions are more acute, and who, from their 
being much at home, and silent spectators of whatever is 
to be seen there, become accomplished dissecters of char- 
acter) seem to dive into the bosom of whoever they have 



CHILDHOOD. 129 

much to do with, and even of some whom they see but for 
a moment. 

A sensitive and taciturn girl in her ninth or tenth year, 
estimates the moral worth of each member of the family, 
not exempting her parents from her searching tact : she 
calculates the strength of purpose that belongs to each ; 
discerns the disguised selfishness, or the vanity of each ; 
and especially, if the character of an adult be alloyed with 
any admixture of faithlessness, pretension, or hypocrisy, 
she sees through the mask, as if it were of glass ; and once 
and again plainly utters what she irresistibly feels to be 
true. Between such a child and the real qualities of those 
around her there seems to be an electric sympathy, superior 
to reason, and independent of evidence. 

An adult is often imposed upon ; and children too may 
be betrayed and deceived by active endeavours to delude 
them ; but when left to their silent perceptions, they are 
seldom utterly in the wrong in their estimates of charac- 
ter. Children, with all their levity, are really much more 
at leisure than most adults ; and they quietly see, and hear, 
and ponder, while their superiors are talking, acting, and 
intently pursuing some particular end. They fix their eye 
upon the shades of difference that distinguish the manners 
and language of one from another : — they are peculiarly 
sensible of contrasts in character, which adults have forgot- 
ten to take notice of ; and as they are altogether unbiass- 
ed by the world's opinion, of which indeed they are ordi- 
narily ignorant, and are moreover not yet alive to those 
artificial motives of candour and charity to which we often 
surrender our involuntary inward convictions, and even our 
better judgment, they, in clear simplicity, come to a con- 
clusion with a sort of Rhadamantine impartiality which 
astounds us, sometimes, when we happen to catch a whis- 
per of it. 

This discernment of character does not however remain 



130 HOME EDUCATION : 

long in its unimpaired clearness. In part it is merged by 
a gradual assimilation of the dispositions of children with 
those around them : that is to say, the contagion of family 
tempers, and the infection of those of the wider circle 
to which children may have access, affecting at length 
their own character, destroy their sensibility, and ren- 
der them unconscious of what at first they had vividly 
and even painfully perceived. Then again a child's in- 
stinctive judgment of character becomes every year less 
and less decisive, as he mixes more in society, and listen- 
ing to common opinion, finds, in very frequent instances, 
that his early impressions concerning individuals are totally 
contradicted by the conventional reputation which such per- 
sons enjoy in the world : — a child thus learns first to give 
up, and then to pay no regard to his private judgment, until 
the very perception is blunted. 

But the practical inference to be drawn from these facts 
is this, namely, that although, during the earliest period, a 
parent's or a teacher's character is not discerned by a 
child, while, during the later period it becomes obscure, 
during the middle time, of which we are now speaking, it 
is so acute as to demand the most especial regard to be 
paid to it. The parent or the teacher must not think to 
screen herself from the penetrating eye of a child of nine 
years old ; but must — there is no alternative — cultivate 
and practise whatever is ingenuous, wise, firm, and pure. 
This is the season eminently for laying a good foundation 
of filial reverence. 

But it must be remembered, that a child's intuitive 
perception of the moral qualities of those around him, is 
accompanied also, although not usually in so decisive a 
manner, with a quick perception of any bungling in the ex- 
planations that he asks for, and of an inconclusiveness or 
sophistry in the reasoning that is addressed to him. An 
intelligent boy often feels much more than he can put into 



CHILDHOOD. 131 

words, of the non sequitor of an inference : — he has a 
sense of absurdity, long before he has learned how to hunt 
it out ; and although his respect for his teacher may impose 
silence upon him, he does not fail to harbour a recollection 
of having seen him floored. 

A teacher may more easily conceal his ignorance, and 
save his credit when he has got into an untenable position, 
in dealing with a youth who knows just enough of logic to 
be made the dupe of adroit sophistry, than in converse with 
a sharp-witted, simple-minded boy of ten years old. Here 
then again, we reach an inference analogous to the one 
above-named, the tendency of which is to impress upon the 
teacher the necessity of adhering to sheer truth and perspi- 
cuity, in his treatment of children during this middle 
period. It is not yet the time for teaching logic ; but it is, 
in a most emphatic sense, the time for watching over the 
just-evolving reason, and for guarding its instinctive recti- 
tude from violence, from disgusts, and from confusion. 

The tenth and eleventh years, are, I think, the times 
when internal revolutions often take place, as well in the 
dispositions as in the intellectual conformation. By inter- 
nal changes, I mean such as seem to arise from occult 
causes, probably of a physical kind, and which are to be 
distinguished from modifications of the character plainly 
attributable to known external influences. These changes, 
as affecting the moral condition, demand often a nice re- 
gard, and skilful treatment on the part of parents : but to 
speak only of such as belong to our present subject, it is 
about this time, if ever, that remarkable faculties, and those 
rare endowments which constitute genius, if they have 
been latent during infancy and early childhood, begin to 
make themselves perceptible. That which shows no burst- 
ing bud in the twelfth year, probably will never be found 
to belong to the mind at all. ^ 



132 home education: 

It is about this time therefore, that, with little hazard, 
parents may so far calculate the future course of their sons, 
as is requisite for determining the sort of education they 
are to receive. Not that the particular calling or profes- 
sion need be, or can be, fixed upon ; but it may then pretty 
well be known whether a boy is to follow the common 
gainful occupations of an ordinary course, or is to devote 
himself to some one of the intellectual professions. This 
forecast of the future course regulates every thing in the 
quality and quantity of instruction to be imparted. 

Again : the middle, as distinguished from the earlier, 
and even the later periods of childhood, is not unfrequent- 
ly marked by a sort of thoughtfulness, or pensive tendency 
to muse upon the conditions of human life. It is as if the 
mind, in reaching the first hillock on its journey, were halt- 
ing a moment to ponder the landscape before it. The in- 
fant does not reflect in any such manner ; and as to the 
youth of fourteen, the ripened vigour of the animal system, 
the higher energy and wider range of the desires, and the 
greater pressure and variety of all sorts of engagements, 
dissipate effectively the meditative humour ; and in truth 
vulgarize the mind, and impel it to accept, without inquiry, 
whatever it finds suited to its tastes. 

It seems as if each marked era of human life were pre- 
ceded by a season of thoughtfulness, often indeed diverted 
by cares, follies, passions, or eager interests ; but indicat- 
ing itself wherever the mind is sufficiently sedate, and its 
position sufficiently settled, to allow a tranquil interior 
change to become perceptible on the surface. At these 
moments, and in connexion no doubt with physical changes, 
a tinge of melancholy pervades the mind, and the balanced 
good and ill of existence is surveyed. The mind too, at 
such seasons, tries its strength upon those insoluble pro- 
blems which sages have so often professed to have disposed 
of, but which still continue to torment human reason, even 



CHILDHOOD. 133 

from its earliest dawn. There are indications sometimes 
of a crisis of this sort in the fifth year ; still more decisively 
in the tenth or eleventh ; and again in the eighteenth. It 
is at these moments that the soul comes to a stand, for an 
instant, and asks — Whither am I going 1 

A child of five years old gives utterance, in all simplicity, 
to its perplexities, of whatever sort ; but it is not so with 
one of ten or twelve, who often harbours and inly revolves 
ideas which he either knows not how to clothe in words, or 
which he wittingly conceals in anticipation of the disap- 
proval, or the disregard with which he supposes his diffi- 
culty would be received by a common-minded teacher. 
But a vigilant parent will catch these dim indications of the 
occult mental distress, and deal with it as his skill shall 
direct. If the solecism may be allowed, one might say, 
that the silence of the labouring spirit, at such a time, 
should be listened to ; and what it would utter should be 
translated in the fairest terms, and wisely replied to. 

At the very same nodes of the mental cycle, if the 
phrase may be borrowed, intelligent children take a sud- 
den glance at various subjects of philosophy in a way that 
the adult mind has perhaps lost the power of doing. 
Some palpable absurdity is very likely to be mingled with 
these fresh impressions; but they almost always deserve 
to be considered and pursued a little. Nothing more 
certainly quashes the intellect than to treat the error or 
absurdity with banter, or a frown. I myself retain a lively 
recollection of a very different mode of dealing with a boy's 
first thoughts, upon points of science ; and I know how 
much the early working of the mind may be aided, and its 
originality may be cherished, by the bland, patient, in- 
defatigable intelligence of a well-informed father, who was 
not only willing and able at all times to answer a question 
and solve a difficulty, but who had a peculiar tact in 
putting himself into a child's mental position, or point of 

12 



134 HOME EDUCATION : 

view, so as to meet and satisfy the real difficulty with 
which he was labouring. An exact attention to these and 
such like evolutions of individual minds is the prerogative 
of home education ; and we should be prepared to make 
the most of our opportunity. 

Again I must advert, in this connection, to the inestima- 
ble advantages afforded by a country residence, for divert- 
ing, in the most healthful manner, a too sensitive medita- 
tive humour, by active and agreeable occupations, and by 
simple exhilarating amusements. In the country we have 
always at hand natural remedies for the natural ailments 
of the mind. And then, as to what is merely intellectual, 
a constant and familiar converse with nature in her forms 
and in her operations, rather than with books of science, 
and artificial modes of instruction, leads the mind on the 
path where real difficulties are clear of adventitious obscu- 
rities, and are not darkened by words without knowledge. 

Some minds, among the young, look at nature chiefly as 
a spectacle, and others chiefly as a contrivance. Some 
are most sensitive in the tastes and imagination ; others in 
the reason ; but in either case, with the garden, the fields, 
the forest, the rough hill side, or broad heath, before us 
and about us, a happy vigorous employment may be pre- 
sented to each newly bursting faculty, and an attractive ob- 
ject found, wherewith to lead the mind off from subjects 
that are unprofitable or dangerous. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE THIRD PERIOD OF EARLY LIFE, AND CONCLUDING TERM 
OF HOME EDUCATION. 

The practical difference between a public and a private 
education becomes broadly apparent about the time when 
boyhood succeeds to childhood. In their twelfth year 
children who have been reared beneath the paternal roof, 
and who have lived in the society of well-informed adults, 
are found to be very unlike, in tastes and habits, those of 
the same standing who have already passed several years 
at school. — They will be less childish, and more childlike : 
they will in a sense be too adult, and too infantile : there 
is an advantage they will possess, and a disadvantage also ; 
and we must be prepared at once to avail ourselves to the 
utmost of the former, and to find means for obviating, as 
far as possible, the latter. 

I do not profess to strike the balance between the two 
methods ; but simply keeping my eye fixed upon that 
which I have adopted, and wl ic I undertake to treat 
of, shall labour to point out the means of doing the best 
with it. 

Home education, when it reaches its later stages, is not 
unlikely to present an apparent, and perha s to some 
extent, a real inconsistency, with the leading principle pro- 
fessed in this volume — I mean that of a retarded develop- 
ment of the mind; for it may often be found that intelligent 
children, who are constantly the companions of well-in- 



136 HOME EDUCATION : 

formed parents, and who may have been their father's as- 
sistants in literary or scientific pursuits, have become, not- 
withstanding his intentions to the contrary, far more mature 
in tastes and habits than they would have been had they pass- 
ed the same years at school. If however the home system 
be in all respects judiciously conducted — if animal health 
and hilarity are maintained by the proper means, and if 
severe exactions in the course of study are scrupulously 
avoided, few, if any, of the ill consequences of this early ri- 
pening of the mind will have been incurred. And yet I will 
not say that a father may not sometimes wish to see his sons 
a little more boyish than they probably will be, if they have 
conversed much more with him, than with their peers. 

The school-boy of fourteen is what his comrades have 
made him ; but the home-bred boy is what his parents 
have made him ; and there is a balance of advantages be- 
tween the two kinds of character. The former is the crea- 
ture of instantaneous and vehement impulses, and he acts 
under the guidance, not of individual reason, but of conven- 
tional habits. Whatever may be his acquirements, and 
whatever the assumed manliness of his bearing, he is a 
child still; and is more sensual, more frivolous, and more 
wilful than a home-bred boy five years younger than him- 
self. In relation however to the engagements of common 
life he is not ill prepared to brunt the world, as it is. He 
is not too thoughtful, or too wise, or too nice in his tastes s 
or too considerate of the feelings of others, to take up the 
rough work of professional or commercial life; and he is 
saved the torture which those must endure who enter upon 
the broad paths of business with their own individual sense 
of right and wrong, and their own feelings, all about 
them. 

To secure, for the home-bred, a portion of the same ad- 
vantages, it is certain that, in approaching the later period 
of early life, some companionship, out of the family, must 



ITS LATER PERIOD. 137 

be admitted, even at a little risk to that simplicity which 
hitherto has been so anxiously preserved. And it will also 
be indispensable, in a home-trained family, I mean for 
boys, as a compensation for what is gained of spirit and 
audacity at school, to court hardihood and courage, and to 
cherish as well animal insensibility (we want the word in- 
sensitiveness) and self-possession, by arduous field amuse- 
ments, and — if they can be had, by enterprises in the for- 
est, or among the mountains. Who could wish to rear, 
at home, slender, pallid, aspen leaf youths, content to be 
never far from their mamma's protection, always duly re- 
gardful of every species of possible peril, and well pleased, 
day after day, to take a quiet ramble, carrying the umbrella 
for their sisters ! We must secure something more than 
this, or renounce home education altogether for boys. 

That higher degree of discretion and considerateness, 
which is likely to attach to children trained at home, may 
very well find an object, and so be prevented — as it other- 
wise will, from lowering the youthful spirits, if there be the 
opportunity of employing them in some really serviceable 
manner. This is easily done with girls ; and whatever 
certainty parents may have of securing future competence, 
or even affluence for their children, there can be no doubt 
— at least I have none, of the desirableness, in regard as 
well to the physical health as to the moral sentiments, and 
even the finest intellectual tastes, of a practical concern- 
ment with domestic duties. A substantial feminine indus- 
try, and a manual acquaintance with the routine of family 
comfort, gives solidity to the muscular system, and solidity 
also to the judgment : — it dispels romantic and morbid sen- 
sitiveness ; inspires personal independence; dismisses a 
thousand artificial solicitudes ; breaks through sickly self- 
ishness ; and in a word, gives a tranquil consistency to the 
mind, on the basis of which all the virtues and graces of 
the female character may securely rest. 
12* 



138 



HOME EDUCATION '. 



As to boys, if agricultural affairs, larger or smaller, are 
an appendage of the establishment — if there be commer- 
cial interests to be looked to — if out-of-door works are car- 
rying on, and accounts are to be kept, great benefits will 
be secured by entrusting certain well defined duties — cer- 
tain regularly returning and real engagements, to a youth, 
from the earliest time at which he appears, as to body and 
mind, capable of sustaining any such responsibility. Occu- 
pations of this sort are intended to give employment to that 
higher degree of thoughtfulness and discretion which is 
likely to belong to a boy who is his father's companion. 
At the same time the alternation of these employments 
with intellectual pursuits has the most favourable influence 
upon the mind in preserving its elasticity, and in increasing 
its free force. 

I think too, and speak not without a regard to facts, that 
great advantages, advantages of more kinds than one, 
accrue from that knowledge of his father's affairs which a 
son, so employed in managing the details of them, is like- 
ly to obtain. An ingenuous and well-principled youth- 
confided in by his father, acquires steadiness of purpose 
and discretion, together with moderated views, which will 
be highly conducive to his future welfare. 

It has been remarked by Rousseau that the period be- 
tween the twelfth and the seventeenth years is the only 
time when man is absolutely happy ; inasmuch as it is then 
only that his forces of body and mind much exceed his de- 
sires. At least it is certain that during this period there is 
a surplus force available, greater in proportion to the calls 
made upon it, than at any other season of life. In large 
schools, where severe mental exercises are exacted, and 
where the most vivid excitements are afforded out of class, 
the superfluous energy of body and mind is pretty well oc- 
cupied ; but at home, provision must be made for giving 
scope to the same superabundant power, which else, either 



ITS LATER PERIOD. 139 

dwindles, or finds some mischievous outlet. I have al- 
ready referred to the desirableness of field exercises, and 
such as are of an arduous sort, in the management of a 
home-trained family ; and as to the overflowing energy of 
the mind, during this same period, we must, in the place of 
the severely exacted exercises of school, devise labours, 
some samples of which will hereafter be given, such as 
shall not merely engage the mental force, but such as shall 
form into a habit the serious feeling of having to achieve a 
task, peremptorily demanded at a certain time. 

The difficulty at home, under intelligent management, 
is not that of imparting any desired amount of information, 
or of awakening the faculties, or of giving them a high de- 
gree of activity ; all which may easily be done ; but the 
point of trial for our domestic system, let it be confessed, 
is the forming the habit of strenuous continued labour, 
impelled by motives that are seen and felt to be irre- 
sistible. The very same task which costs the mind the 
most grievous struggles between its inclination to desist, 
and its wish to proceed — if the motive be a little loose or 
questionable, this task, not a whit abated, is performed 
with alacrity and ease, when once it is looked at as in no 
way possibly to be evaded. The sense of absolute neces- 
sity is that which makes all things easy — converting the 
impossible into the practicable. 

Merely looking therefore at the learner's own present 
comfort, we should wish him, at times at least, to come 
under the stern law of necessity in his mental exercises. 
But this is not all, for it is certain that the business of life, 
and especially in some of the professions, demands a power 
of vigorous, long-continued application to the most irksome 
labours ; nor are the highest offices exempt from more or 
less of what must be called drudgery. A man whose fa- 
culty of attention is speedily exhausted, who resents steady 
application to dry details, and who finds frivolous pretexts 



140 



HOME EDUCATION 



for shifting upon others every strenuous mental effort, such 
a man is good for nothing, but to receive his rents from the 
trusty hands of an agent ; or to sign his name, and get his 
dividends twice a year. 

A very different issue of our educational course is here 
kept in view ; and therefore, over and beyond the convey- 
ance of what is to be acquired, and which may be convey- 
ed without any very painful assiduity, besides this, the 
power of keeping his footing with others, on the tread-mill 
of mental labour, must be acquired by the learner. After 
what has already been said on the subject, it can hardly be 
needful to add a caution, not to go beyond the point at 
which the animal system begins to sustain real injury by 
continued application. 

If a well trained and intelligent youth of fifteen could 
but be put at once into possession of the detailed practical 
knowledge — the experience, which in fact is only to be 
slowly acquired, he would often have the advantage of his 
teacher, in readiness and rectitude of judgment, upon sub- 
jects any way connected with those vivid interests that at- 
tach men to this side, or to that, of party controversies. 
And this advantage would arise not merely from the clear, 
unimpaired freshness of the faculties, but from the free- 
dom of the mind from the strong, though unconscious in- 
fluence of personal, and gradually formed, ill habits of rea- 
soning. An ingenuous mind is indeed conscious of the 
presence and operation of certain well defined motives for 
thinking, or for professing to think, so and so ; and proba- 
bly guards itself against its known partialities ; but how 
few are at all aware of the number and the force of those 
unimpassioned and noiseless habitual misjudgments that ac- 
tually overrule their every mental operation ! The process 
of thinking, or reasoning, as often conducted, might be 
compared to the process of calculating astronomical events, 



ITS LATER PERIOD. 141 

when the data are taken, unquestioned, from printed 
tables : — the operation is, let us grant, correctly performed, 
and the result would be true, if it were not, alas! that this 
authorized vade-mecum — this book of Tables, abounds 
with errors of the press : all therefore is set wrong. 

Now a teacher of philosophical temper, who is aware, 
not merely of his own party bias (with which he is careful 
not to inflict his pupil) but of the general fact that the 
mind, as it advances, becomes unconsciously subject to 
certain fallacious modes of reasoning, will not disdain, 
while assuming to guide the minds committed to his care, to 
watch and wait for their uncontrolled workings, when the 
requisite materials of thought are placed before them. A 
teacher may, in this way, get a clue to his own constitu- 
tional errors of calculation, and may discover, in the spon- 
taneous reasonings of a fresh mind, the genuine logic, from 
which he has himself unknowingly swerved. 

But at any rate the p ellucid ingenuousness of young 
person swho, (unless miserably infected by sectarian sen- 
timents) have no predilections, should be attentively listen- 
ed to, and delicately treated. A mind may be injured beyond 
remedy, which is roughly dealt with, or acrimoniously re- 
buked, in any instance of its not immediately falling in with 
a teacher's opinions. To the young mind, the broad fields 
of thought are as yet all unfenced ; nor has it learned to 
notice enclosures, or to respect rights of way, or manorial 
prerogatives : — earth is as open as air and sky. 

We are not here excusing a lawlessness of thought in 
the young, disdainful of authority ; nor are wishing to en- 
courage unfixed mental habits ; but are only adverting to 
a fact, not unlikely to be overlooked — that when discrepan- 
cies arise between the teacher and the pupil, a question 
may fairly be put to himself by the former, whether the dif- 
ference does not result, in part, from a collision between 
the unwarped reason of the youth, and the unconsciously 



142 



HOME EDUCATION 



unsound logic of the teacher : a moment's pause, on his 
part, might enable him, as well to correct a personal error, 
as to save his pupil an unmerited reproof. 

If there be room to hope that mankind will, in a coming 
age, reach a more advanced position on the road of genuine 
wisdom, than has as yet been attained, so desirable an event 
is likely to be favoured by a greater care, on the part of 
teachers, in managingthe first spontaneous expansion of 
the reasoning faculty. Too often the worst prejudices are 
authoritatively forced upon the young, which the feeble- 
minded retain through life as shackles ; but which the 
strong resentfully throw off, to the peril of all faith and 
principle. 

An intelligent agent is capable of liberty only so far as 
he possesses some excess of force, available at his discre- 
tion. But we have just said that this excess is proportion- 
ately greater during the years of adolescence, than at any 
other time of life : the capability of liberty therefore must 
be so much the greater ; and the question is — How far it 
may be safely indulged. At school, absolute restraint, and 
absolute liberty, or something like it, take their turns in the 
course of every day. But at home, the two elements are 
mingled more, and are together spread over all hours ; a 
greater range of discretion being allowed during seasons 
of restraint, and rather more restraint being imposed dur- 
ing intervals of liberty. Yet this intermixture would in it- 
self tend to break down a little the force of the mind, or to 
render the habits indefinite, if it were not compensated by 
eliciting some higher motives of conduct ; such as may 
render it safe to grant to the home-bred youth a much wider 
scope than is allowed to the school-boy, of the same stand- 
ing. There must be more license, counterpoised by more 
principle ; and thus a degree of steadiness of character may 
be secured, which is to come in the place of the school- 
hoy's rude energy. At home we cannot have precisely 



ITS LATER PERIO D. 143 

the same results as are obtained at school, but must seek 
equivalents ; and we may often command what is of higher 
value. 

Difficulties such as these scarcely attach to female edu- 
cation ; for a mother, possessed of the qualities fitting her 
to superintend that of her daughters, is rarely at a loss in 
communicating to them such principles as will make it 
safe to leave them in the enjoyment of as much personal 
liberty as a daughter at home can wish for. 

But a father finds it otherwise with his sons, after they 
reach their teens ; for, the vastly high erenergy, animal and 
mental, of the male temperament, and for which adequate 
employment is not always available, must be disciplined, 
not broken down, by bringing the moral sense into fuller 
operation. A home-bred youth, not cowed or pinned to 
the sleeve, needs to be inspired with far more sentiment 
than would be necessary for him at school. And if these 
ends can actually be secured, that is to say, if youthful 
vigour and animation can be preserved unimpaired, 
along with enough feeling and principle to guarantee 
mild and discreet conduct, we then gain a real advan- 
tage. 

Our purpose, in this respect, will be much facilitated, if 
the tastes of a youth are such as impel him to enter, with 
eagerness, into literary or scientific pursuits, as his father's 
companion and assistant. The genuine zest of intellectual 
labour being generated and kept in activity, this bond of fel- 
lowship between a father and a son, on the ground of philo- 
sophy or learning, may easily be made to extend its influ- 
ence on all sides, and thus enable the former the more 
readily to govern the spirit of the latter. The bare force 
of paternal authority does not suffice for this end ; for if it 
ensure specious obedience only, little good is done ; — if 
actual obedience then there is a probability that the viva- 
city of the mind has been too much broken down by the 



144 HOME EDUCATION: 

means used for giving effect to so strict a sort of govern- 
ment. The same result is attained in a far happier 
manner when there can be realized between a father and 
his sons, the spirit and warmth of intellectual companion- 
ship. 

I have already said, that, as early as the eleventh year, 
or at some time during the middle period of the educational 
course, enough may ordinarily be known of children's na- 
tural endowments to enable a parent to assign them, seve- 
rally, to one or the other of the two classes — the intellec- 
tual, who are to receive an elaborate and extended mental 
culture, or the unintellectual, who are to be fitted for busi- 
ness, or business-like engagements, and whose education, 
of whatever sort, must, or may well be brought to a close 
at an early age. 

But about the fourteenth year, it may generally be prac- 
ticable (in relation to those who are destined to a profes- 
sional course) to determine the particular line that a youth 
is to pursue. Now if this can be done, two methods of 
mental treatment appear to be proper, the one of which is 
very obvious, and would hardly need to be specified : the 
other might perhaps not occur to the teacher, or might be 
discarded as not consistent with the former. What I mean 
is, that if the professional destination of a youth is ascer- 
tained, then, in the first place, and as every one will admit, 
something may be done before professional studies are 
entered upon, to familiarize them to him a little. Indeed 
it is probable that, if the choice of a profession has been 
made on the ground of a youth's personal taste and pecu- 
liar talent, he will himself court the studies that bear upon 
the object of his preference. On this point there can be no 
need to enlarge. 

But while indulgence, to some extent, may be allowed to 
a boy's predilections for particular pursuits, there is another 



ITS LATER PERIOD. 145 

point, of some importance, to be kept in view during the 
year or two that may elapse after a profession has been 
chosen, and until the college course is commenced, and it 
is to engage the mind with studies that may serve as the cor- 
rectives of professional pursuits, and which are likely to be 
discarded, or held in low esteem, when once the profession- 
al enthusiasm is kindled. It is not intended that a youth 
should be compelled to addict himself to studies altogether 
distasteful to him, or which he has no ability to cope with. 
To preclude a misunderstanding on this point, I will offer 
an exemplification of my meaning. 

Let it then be premised that a home education supposes 
always the diffusion of so much liberal and expansive in- 
telligence in a family as must have the effect of excluding 
exclusiveness of tastes, and so, of bringing all minds, 
whatever may be their particular preferences, into agreea- 
ble sociality with all the muses, and all the sciences. This 
being supposed, then, if for example, the legal profession 
were in prospect, a teacher need not be told that his pupil 
should become conversant with history ; or that he should 
be exercised in the ready use of the faculties of abstraction, 
analysis, analogy, and ratiocination ; or that he should be 
practised in a fluent, pointed, extemporaneous utterance of 
his thoughts :— all this is obvious enough ; but beyond this, 
we ought to look out for pursuits, the tendency of which will 
be to counteract the ill influence of the legal profession 
upon the mind and the moral sentiments. With this view 
peculiar attention should be given (let no offence be taken 
at the suggestion) to that sound moral training which brings 
the universally applicable logic of inflexible rectitude to 
bear upon the technical logic of mere pleading to carry a 
point. History, read under a proper guidance, and espe- 
cially those more elaborate specimens of modern history, 
wherein the real motives and private character of public 
men are exposed in their confidential letters — this sort of 

13 



146 home education: 

historical memoirs, affords opportunities for exercising the 
moral sense in discriminating between the base and the 
noble, the cunning and the wise, the specious and the 
great, in public conduct. What we are aiming at is to 
train the moral taste, not merely as applicable generally to 
ordinary conduct in a common lot, but as adapted to the 
trying and complicated circumstances wherein good and 
evil are commingled, so often, in the course of public life. 
Besides those sacred principles of morality which a man's 
character, as a man, should rest upon, there is a specific 
feeling of the just and fair, applicable to the difficult occa- 
sions of a professional career, and destitute of which, 
homely honesty and virtue get, unawares, into many a 
wrong position, and are tripped up. That study of history 
then which the lawyer needs, as a lawyer, is one thing, but 
that study of it which the man needs, who is to endure the 
ordeal of the legal profession, is quite another. 

Again : it is desirable to provide against the mental short- 
sightedness not seldom induced by legal studies and prac- 
tice ; or in other words, to impart a more philosophic ex- 
pansiveness of understanding, as counteractive of the habit 
of holding to what is merely technical, and of refusing to 
look at what is broad or abstract. It is usual to recom- 
mend mathematical studies as preparatory to a legal edu- 
cation, under the idea that these pursuits afford a good 
training to the reasoning faculty. But I am inclined to 
question whether the one species of logic — the mathemati- 
cal, be indeed a fit preparation for the other — the legal, 
differing as do the two in their very principles : but waiving 
this question, it would appear that Natural Philosophy, and 
especially as it is now prosecuted, affords precisely the sort 
of intellectual preparation we need for preventing what 
might be called the anchylosis of the faculties, or that fix- 
edness of the reason which makes the mind the slave of 
instances, of precedents, and of technical verbosities. 



ITS LATER PERIOD. 147 

Modern physical science is as regardful of single instances 
as law itself can be ; but it tends always upward to the 
universal and the abstract ; and hence it affords so good a 
discipline to the higher reason. 

With a different immediate object, and yet coming under 
the same general principle of providing against profes- 
sional distortions of the mind, it is very desirable to cherish 
the imaginative tastes in those who are to addict them- 
selves to studies utterly devoid, for the most part, of intrin- 
sic charms, and likely therefore to parch the intellect. 
For it must be remembered that it is through the medium 
of these tastes that access is had to some of the noblest 
emotions ; and by these often that such emotions are kept 
in vitality. 

It would lead us too far to pursue the illustration of the 
point in hand, as related to the other professions : indeed 
the subject is in itself so important, and has been so little 
adverted to, that it may claim hereafter a separate consid- 
eration. How incalculable, for instance, and beneficial, 
might be the consequences of an early training of youth, 
destined to the exercise of the Christian ministry, were it 
conducted on the principle of furnishing the mind with 
habits counteractive of certain tendencies of the clerical 
temper which diminish in fact the beneficent influence of 
the most momentous of all offices, when brought to bear 
upon human nature as it is. 

Whatever relates, in a specific manner, to the acquire- 
ments which should be made, and to the training which 
should be passed through, during the latter period of Home 
Education, will find its place in the following chapters, or in 
another volume. One preliminary topic only now remains 
to engage our attention, and that it is a consideration of some 
of those original diversities of mental conformation which 
demand to be regarded in adapting courses of study to in» 
dividual tastes and talents. 



CHAPTER VII. 

SOME DIVERSITIES OF MENTAL CONFORMATION CONSIDERED IN 
RELATION TO METHODS OF CULTURE. 

The prerogative of Home Education is the adaptation of 
methods of culture to individual diversities of taste and 
power : the discrimination therefore of such natural differ- 
ences properly belongs to our general subject. 

In setting about the discrimination of intellectual charac- 
ter, two errors are to be avoided ; the first is that of a too 
hasty, or a too confident decision in relation to a child's 
general ability, or particular turn ;, for besides a parent's 
liability to err, the minds of children undergo, in some in- 
stances, very remarkable revolutions, such as totally belie 
the estimate that might have been formed of them at an 
early period. Our judgment should be held open to cor- 
rection from year to year. The second error is that of 
being too ready to allow our plans to be overruled by the 
supposed ability, or particular tastes, or the assumed in- 
capacity of a child. If too pliable, we may cherish faults 
instead of correcting them. While some teachers blindly 
and despotically drive all minds forward on the same path, 
and compel all to move at the same pace, others are in- 
firmly sensitive to the imagined inability of children ; or 
lend an ear too readily to their likings and mislikings, until 
at length nothing can be gone on with, and nothing is found 
altogether suited to the " natural tastes" of the squeamish 
little folks. The pitiless discipline of school is much to 
be preferred to any such compliant mode of proceeding. 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 149 

It will be convenient to consider the various instances 
of mental conformation, most needful to be regarded in our 
modes of culture, under the two general classes of — Those 
which must be specified on account of some apparent de- 
ficiency of intellectual structure, and, Those which claim 
regard on account of some peculiar talent, or a general su- 
periority of understanding. 

For the first then of these two classes. The instances 
most easily discriminated are those in which a morbid deli- 
cacy of constitution impairs the power of attention, and 
produces a wayward li.stlessness, and general inability to 
hold to any train of ideas, beyond a few moments. These 
cases are not likely to be mistaken ; nor can there be a 
question as to the course to be pursued, which should aim 
at nothing but the corroboration of the animal economy. 
Ill health, whether accidental or constitutional, never fails 
to make itself apparent in other modes than in the mere in- 
disposition to learn ; and therefore a reluctance to learn, 
falsely excused on the plea of ill health, may be readily de- 
tected. Real disease is sure to be indicated by want of 
appetite, deficient muscular substance, unquiet sleep, and 
fitful animal spirits. The treatment of such cases does not 
appertain to our subject. Need it be said that there can 
be no greater cruelty than that of working a brain poorly 
supplied with blood, and wanting in nervous energy ! 

And yet there is much that may be done, even with a 
sickly child, in keeping the mind alive — tasks and books 
out of the question. Sickliness, intellectually considered, 
is infancy protracted ; and the mental treatment proper to 
a healthy child of three or four years old, is nearly what 
must be resorted to with an infirm one of ten or twelve. 
A child must be labouring under active disease who will 
not listen to desultory, yet instructive conversation, or to a 
little reading. Those ingenious devices too, for convey- 
ing instruction, which we should discard generally, may be 

13* 



150 HOME EDUCATION ! 

fairly introduced in a case such as we are supposing, and 
the eye and the hand may be occupied, while the mind is 
unconsciously fed. 

Neither the classics, nor the mathematics, can be, to 
any good purpose pursued, if the mind be at all infirm in 
consequence of the physical condition. But one or more 
of the modern languages, comparatively easy as they are, 
and fraught too with entertainment, may readily be con- 
veyed to a sickly child, in morsels, and colloquially. No 
Grammar, no Dictionary, should, or need be put into the 
hand ; for without either, a teacher, qualified to do it, may 
make a child familiar with French, Italian, and Spanish. 

The rule to be kept in mind, in the treatment of an in- 
firm child, is, that it is the power of attention, rather than 
the general intelligence, that is impaired by ill health. 
Whatever therefore, in the usual range of study, is suscep- 
tible of comminution— whatever may be imparted a bit at 
a time, may be taught to those who ought to be exempted 
from continued application. Thus, history, geography, 
natural history, especially, and the demonstrable parts of 
natural philosophy, may, by a proper method, be instilled 
without hazard either to mind or body. If by any such 
modes of accommodation the taste can be kept alive, not 
only will the miseries of listless inanity be prevented, but 
a preparation will be made against a time, not unlikely to 
arrive, when much more may be attempted. It is not un- 
usual for the morbid instability of childhood to wear off 
about the fourteenth year ; or the sensitiveness which has 
belonged to the teens, may disappear at twenty ; and a 
late education be then carried on. 

The above-named case of physical infirmity, as is mani- 
fest, may include many varieties of mental conformation, 
which will engage a parent's more particular attention : 
and the same may be said of the class next to be men- 
tioned, namely, that of children who must be treated as de- 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 151 

cisively non-intellectual, and who yet, by a well adapted 
course of study, may with ease be rescued from the inanity, 
frivolity, and perhaps grossness, that would attach to them 
under a common school discipline. I have already more 
than once spoken of the cruelty of forcing a classical edu- 
cation (or the appearance of it, for the substance is utterly 
out of the question) upon minds of a thoroughly ordinary 
stamp. No practical error more egregious is perhaps to 
be met with in the common conduct of mankind, than this. 
Youths wronged at school in this manner, but yet not want- 
ing in plain good sense, are seen to expel resentfully from 
their memories every trace of the ignominy and torment 
they have been subjected to, the instant they find them, 
selves fairly out of the reach of the cane and ferula. 

But there is a world of things that may be learned, and 
relished too, by children of very ordinary minds. Is it so 
that Horace, Virgil, and Homer are the door-keepers of 
the temple of knowledge 1 — we trow not ; and in fact, with 
or without the leave of these worthies, we will find an en- 
trance for our numerous class of the non -intellectual. I 
am firmly persuaded that the general intelligence of the 
community would be very visibly increased, in the course 
of a few years, if the common sense principle were every 
where adopted of saving all the time squandered upon the 
bootless attempt to teach the classics to common minded 
boys ; and if the same precious months and years were 
rationally employed in conveying the sort of education 
which such would gladly, and gratefully accept. A revo- 
lution such as this, is not likely to take place in our great 
schools ; but I should think myself happy, could I induce 
any parents to adopt the determination of not allowing their 
sons (coming under this class) to be made the victims of 
an old but barbarous error. It may be long before we are 
saved the pitiful spectacle of seeing common minds forced 
in troops over the burning coals of a classical course ; but 



152 HOME EDUCATION : 

shall not a father's good sense and paternal compassion 
rescue his own children from the miseries attaching to this 
worship of the gods of Greece and Rome 1 

This ill considered usage props itself a good deal, upon 
the vulgar adage, that — What man has done, man may do. 
Yes, man in the abstract, may do whatever man in the ab- 
stract, has done. But is it true that whatever William or 
Francis has accomplished, John and Samuel, by sufficient 
endeavours, may also achieve 1 Any such supposition we 
leave to those who have passed their days in a cloister. I 
presume that none who are conversant with human nature 
need any refutation to be advanced of theories such as 
these. In aiding nature we must ever be willing to yield 
to the plain indication of her intentions ; nor are there any 
more legible or more unalterable than those which declare 
what each mind is fit for, and what every man may reason- 
ably attempt. 

And let it be allowed me, in this place, to remind the 
zealous advocates of classical learning, as proper for all, 
that the actual effect of their endeavours so to extend this 
system of training, is to send forth into society, every year, 
many who retain through life a vivid resentment of the 
wrong that has been done them at school, and who, instead 
of being indifferent spectators of the controversy now agi- 
tated, and likely to be still further prosecuted, on this very 
question, are prompt to join in the outcry against Latin and 
Greek, in terms of embittered scorn. But these same 
persons, wisely treated at school, might have ranged them- 
selves on the other side, and have given their useful sup- 
port to methods which they would readily admit to be pro- 
per to some, though not to all : good sense, not prejudiced 
by unhappy recollections, would secure a vote from such 
persons in favour of learned institutions. In fact it is not 
uncommon to meet with men of absolutely no education 
and of limited intelligence who yet anxiously endeavour to 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 153 

secure a classical education for a clever son : — they do not 
despise learning, if they have not been made to quarrel with 
itpersonally in early life. Thus it is that some who have risen 
to competency or opulence from the lowest ranks, and who 
can barely write their names, are seen to be the liberal sup- 
porters of educational institutions ; while those of the same 
intellectual stamp who have themselves endured the disci- 
pline of a grammar school, speak with acrid contempt of 
classical learning. 

On some accounts it may be well, as I have already 
said, to send non-intellectual children to school ; but really 
so long as it continues to be the practice to cram all with 
the fragments of dead men's bones (for it is the bones 
only of classical literature that can be given to those who 
have no taste) there may be good reason for retaining such 
at home. 

If it be supposed then that parents, exercising a sound 
discretion, and being convinced that their children are not 
naturally endowed with intellectual tastes, have resolved 
to exclude the learned languages from their system of edu- 
cation; yet it will not follow that one or two of the modern 
languages may not be taught in such a family. What has 
been said already of the infirm, may be said also of the 
unintelligent, in this respect. Beside the comparative ac- 
cessibility of the European languages, and the facilities for 
teaching them in a colloquial method, they may easily be 
made attractive to almost the dullest minds. From the 
entire mass of ancient literature hardly the quantity of five 
pages can be gleaned of a sort which will entertain a boy 
of dull intellect ; but from the literature of France, Spain, 
Italy, and Germany, it is easy to collect abundant mate- 
rials, such as will stimulate the heaviest minds. 

Or if the languages, altogether, are relinquished as un- 
attainable, or as not likely to be useful, there are means in 
abundance, suited to the purpose of quickening inert facuh- 



154 HOME EDUCATION : 

ties, and of excluding frivolous or sensual tastes. If there 
be any manipulative or operative tact, let the laboratory be 
resorted to- — not to philosophize, but to transmute, to smelt, 
to crystalize, to sublimate, to inflate balloons, and to ply 
electric batteries. Or if there be any faculty of observa- 
tion, and any industry of collection, we may set a-going the 
museum of natural history — the hortus siccus, and the col- 
lection of geological specimens. If there be a construc- 
tive and mechanical turn, we have at our command the 
various branches of the applicate sciences ; and one of the 
best pursuits in the case supposed — land-surveying, men- 
suration, and the art of the civil engineer. I venture to 
say that it is hardly an instance in a hundred in which, if a 
boy is not absolutely mindless, he may not, properly dealt 
with, be brought to display a degree of zest in pursuing 
some one or more of these tangible and intelligible sci- 
ences. In most cases, if we will but condescend to try 
the proper means, the sluggish faculties may be at length 
brought, one by one, into play, until not merely a fair 
amount of general information has been imparted, but the 
individual has been, if one might use the expression, put 
into amicable communication with the world of mind, and 
for ever rescued from the ignominy of ignorance. A kind- 
ly, animated, condescending treatment — versatile in its 
measures, and quick to catch any indications of natural 
taste, may work wonders with common minds. Home 
education might perhaps win its brightest honours on this 
very ground. 

The actual want of mind is to be carefully discriminated 
from the less usual case of mind dormant ; — the early ap- 
pearances being sometimes nearly the same. It may be 
thought that little danger is incurred on this ground, inas- 
much as it may be supposed that a latent faculty will not 
fail to evolve itself in due season. But it is not quite cer- 
tain that it will always do so ; and on the contrary, continue 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 155 

ed discouragements, and injudicious treatment may ac- 
tually crush extraordinary powers in the bud. The in- 
stances on record, of deep-seated genius, not at all indi- 
cated until a late period) have been chiefly of two kinds, 
namely, the poetic, and the analytic, or metaphysical. In 
the former case the indications are* a melancholy way- 
wardness of disposition, a deficiency of the gregarious sen- 
timent, and an inability to move in trammels, or to hold a 
place in class. In the latter case there is likely to appear 
a peculiar slowness of apprehension, or absolute inability 
to admit knowledge in the form in which it is presented by 
the teacher ; while, in his own way, the boy of occult power 
takes great strides on the path of abstraction. He will 
moreover be wanting in that sort of technical memory 
which, beyond any other talent, is the means of promotion 
at school. But a philosophic eye will perceive, in the first 
named instance, that the boy of whom it is contemptuously 
reported that really nothing can be done with him ; or, 
you are welcome to try your skill upon him, is in fact mak- 
ing himself happy in a world of his own creation, and has 
some whimsical pursuit which derives its charm entirely 
from intellectual associations ; and in the latter, although 
there be an averseness to the details of learning, such as 
is an effectual obstacle to progress with others, there is 
no indisposition to intellectual occupations, of some pecu- 
liar sort. 

Again : a degree of discrimination more likely to be ex- 
ercised at home than at school, is required in treating a 
class of minds peculiarly constituted in regard to the effect 
produced upon them by competition. Exciting as this 
feeling is to most, there are some — and some of fine intel- 
lectual temperament, whom it utterly depresses, so that 
they recoil and collapse the moment they are conscious of 
rivalry. Such minds, under common treatment, suffer a 
cruel disadvantage, and pass down with ignominy to a low 



156 HOME EDUCATION : 

place, although, if their intellectual conformation had but 
been understood, they might have left all in the rear. An 
extreme sensitiveness and delicacy, or an inability to move 
faster than at a fixed rate, may be the cause of this pecu- 
liarity ; or in rare instances it may result from an unusual 
grasp of mind, such as impels the subject of it to question, 
or to reject, the customary and perhaps inaccurate phrases 
of school exercises, and to be searching for a better ex- 
pression of the dimly-perceived truth, which others glibly 
and thoughtlessly enunciate. Instances of this kind de- 
mand peculiar regard. 

I must however return for a moment to the case of those 
who are consigned to the class of unintellectual mediocrity, 
and to whom a teacher may be tempted to pay too little 
attention ; and must endeavour to press on his recollection 
the very important fact that these very minds, undistin- 
guished as they may be in their early course by any activity 
of faculty, or any propension toward learning, may, and 
probably will, many of them, be found hereafter to be gifted 
with a soundness of judgment, a steadiness of intention, a 
tact in the management of affairs, an industry, or a courage 
of principle, such as, in relation to the most valuable ends 
of life, will give them immensely the advantage over their 
more intellectual comrades. If the history of a class of 
boys were pursued for twenty years after the time when 
they left school together, how often would it be found that 
the dull, and the inapplicable, and the ungifted, had become 
desirably established in prosperous positions, and were 
commanding the respect of their circles, while the emeriti, 
with perhaps a single exception, had poorly played their 
cards, and had very slenderly realized the bright hopes of 
teachers and parents. In truth some of the most desirable 
and productive qualities of the mind, and especially such as 
belong to the judgment, are seldom if ever developed at an 
early period ; and they may remain embedded in the char- 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 157 

acter without betraying themselves by any sort of intel- 
lectual activity or taste. But if we are to regard, either the 
welfare of the individual, or the benefit of the community, 
can we think ourselves at liberty, as teachers, to consign to 
a slovenly mode of treatment the entire class of the unin- 
tellectual 1 There can be no doubt that the great interests 
of society suffer incalculably in consequence of the inap- 
propriate sort of culture that is bestowed in most schools 
upon common-minded boys ; as well as from the super- 
cilious neglect of them by their teachers, who will not 
trouble themselves to do any thing (to use a proverbial 
phrase) but drive the nail that will go. The teacher aims 
to get credit : he can get it only upon the few in his class 
who are gifted : — all the rest are left to their fate. And 
yet these neglected ones, much more probably than their 
brilliant comrades are, at the end of ten or fifteen years, to 
stand, in the most important positions, and to be the hold- 
ers and managers of the substantial interests of the com- 
munity. 

In treating, as I am doing in the present work, of the 
culture of the mind, it is unavoidable to pursue a method 
which implies rather more than a dull mediocrity of intel- 
ligence in those who are to be the subjects of it ; but I 
could be well pleased to labour in the humbler, though use- 
ful office, of digesting an entirely distinct scheme of educa- 
tion, expressly adapted to those who give no early indica- 
tion of intelligence. Such a system, well concerted, and 
patiently and vigorously put in practice, would not fail to 
produce the most striking effects upon the tone of society ; 
and its result would be, not to diminish the proper influ- 
ence of eminently gifted minds, as if the many might, by 
such, or by any means, be put on a par with the few ; but 
on the contrary, to enhance that influence, to facilitate its 
exercise, and to extend very much the sphere within which 
it might take effect. It is precisely the neglected educa- 

14 



158 home education: 

tion of the unintelligent mass of minds which makes the" 
progress of truth always so slow, and renders it liable to so 
many reverses. 

Only let teachers remember that, though ungifted minds 
are incapable of being forced into a state of intellectual 
activity, they may with great ease be furnished with an 
ample amount of that sort of knowledge which is likely 
hereafter to be useful to them. There are few minds in- 
deed that may not be made familiarly conversant with what- 
ever, in philosophy or nature, is visible and palpable, or 
which may be distinctly presented to the conceptive fa- 
culty ; — and how greatly would this sort of culture be 
thought of in after life by many who, driven as they have 
been, by the birch and cane through the meters of Horace, 
remember their school-days very much in the same manner 
as a man does who has made his escape from an Algerine 
galley. 

But I proceed to suggest a hint or two relative to the 
discrimination and treatment of those who come under our 
second general class, as giving some indication of superior 
intelligence. And it will not be forgotten that, while the 
intention of moral treatment is always to reduce indi- 
vidual peculiarities of temper nearly to an uniformity ; or 
at least to bring them to an approximation to the one 
standard of truth and goodness, it may, on the contrary, be 
taken as the rule of intellectual treatment *o enhance 
rather than to abate the peculiar mental character, and to 
give the highest possible advantage to whatever faculty 
may appear to have been bestowed on the mind as its per- 
sonal distinction. We study peculiarities of temper in 
order that we may know how to mitigate, to disperse, to 
quell, what marks the individual : but we study peculiarities 
of mind that we may, in the best manner, add the benefit 
of culture to the endowments of nature. There may, in- 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 159 

deed, be those who would rather see their children mildly 
shine in the general light of intelligence, evenly diffused, 
than rendered conspicuous by a single brilliant talent : but 
it is a question whether there be not an obligation to the 
community, if not to the individual, which demands that ex- 
traordinary powers should be definitely devoted to particu- 
lar services. 

It is very far from being my present purpose to attempt 
a general discrimination of intellectual character. All we 
have to do with, in relation to methods of culture, are some 
few distinctions that seem to demand an adaptation of the 
process of education. It would be impracticable, or not 
very useful if practicable, to mark the nicer shades of men- 
tal diversity : parents must use their best discernment in 
studying the structure of single minds in their own families. 

Decisive intellectuality of taste, and superior mental 
power, whether considered in relation to the training that 
may be proper to it, or to the future exercise of it, by the 
adult, is, speaking broadly, either of the executive, the 
philosophic, or the imaginative kind ; and a word or two 
in reference to each, will satisfy our immediate purpose. 
Ample materials might indeed be found for a treatise on 
this branch of practical education — the treatment and dis- 
crimination of the different orders of minds, but in this 
place a cursory allusion to the subject is all that can be ad- 
mitted. 

By the phrase — executive mental superiority, I intend 
something more than that general ability or aptness for the 
transactions of affairs which renders a man successful in 
commercial life, and which, with other necessary qualities, 
ensures him affluence or competency. What I mean is a 
species of intellectual power which has an affinity with the 
most stirring and ennobling motives of our nature, and 
which is likely to seek its objects in a sphere above that of 
pecuniary interests. This order of mental power is, in fact, 



160 HOME EDUCATION : 

a combination of many excellencies, for it includes that 
ready apprehension of the bearings of things which belongs 
to the mere man of business, and without which no one can 
succeed in the management of any affairs, along with so 
much, at least, of the philosophic faculty as serves to ele- 
vate the subject of it above the level of vulgar motives, ex- 
panding the views, bringing the mind into correspondence 
with abstract and universal principles, and enabling it to 
adapt general principles to those sudden and unusual oc- 
casions when inferior minds are soon bewildered, or go 
wrong. Again : this species of superiority implies more 
than a spice of the imaginative element, without which 
there can be no genius, no greatness, no richness or free- 
dom, no soul, no appliancy of talents, no harmony of pur- 
poses, no energetic hold of generous sentiments. A mind 
thus distinguished (and perhaps the prevalence of a better 
system of education would make it appear that such are not 
so rare as we have been used to think) such a mind is clear- 
ly destined for public life, and the care of it is no light 
responsibility for the teacher or parent. 

The facts on record whence an opinion must be drawn, 
lead us to believe that, while the genius of the poet or the 
philosopher may long lie unsuspected, and the subject of it 
actually occupy a place below the line of mediocrity, it is 
otherwise with the class of minds we are now speaking of, 
which, in all instances now occurring to my recollection, 
have displayed their superiority at an early age. Whatever 
wilfulness or irregularity may have belonged, in such cases, 
to the youth— the boy and the child has predicted, in an 
unquestionable tone, his future greatness. A clear and 
happy comprehension of whatever is offered in the ordinary 
course of study — a steady spontaneous perseverance in 
achieving whatever has once presented itself to the mind 
as desirable, a solidity of judgment, ten years in advance 
of the actual age, a disposition to generalize, in relation to 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 161 

the great interests of mankind, and, as a particular trait, a 
passion for history, such are likely to be the indications of 
this order of mind. 

In speaking of the system of culture proper for such a 
mind, another of its characteristics must be mentioned — 
namely, the disposition and the ability, in some degree, to 
lead the way in its own education. I do not intend a con- 
tumacious temper, resisting lawful authority, and spurning 
reasonable control; for, on the contrary, mild docility is 
more likely to belong to faculties of a high order; but there 
will be at once such a determination towards study 
as renders external- incentives unnecessary — so quick a 
perception of what it is which is to be done and acquired, 
and especially so much tendency towards whatever is most 
important among the several objects of study, as will super- 
sede almost any plans laid down by the teacher. An emi- 
nently superior mind, whatever may be its amiable compli- 
ance with the wishes or advices of others, will, from the 
first to the last be the author of its own course. The part 
of the teacher will be chiefly that of supplying those inci- 
dental aids which none can dispense with, and of furnishing 
the mere materials and apparatus of study. 

This kind of superiority admits indefinite degrees, from 
the greatness which founds or governs empires, to the 
ability that takes the lead on a bench of justices of the 
peace : but the early indications of it, whether in his higher 
or lower degrees, are still — a quick apprehension of things 
complicated, an unusual ripeness of judgment, and a self- 
determining energy, intellectual and moral. And let it be 
observed that the maturity or correctness of judgment of 
which we here speak, is something altogether distinct from, 
and independent of, logical acuteness,or the acquired power 
of constructing an argument. Sound and vigorous under- 
standings do not reach truth by threading inferences, in syl- 
logistic style ; nor could a greater injury be done to a 

14* 



162 home education: 

youth, of powerful intellect, than the training him to reason 
in a scholastic manner. What is wanted to give the fullest 
advantage to a very superior mind is simply to put it in 
possession of copious materials, on which to act : its me- 
thod of acting will be its own. 

Our second general class of gifted minds includes more 
varieties, and as the cases are of less rare occurrence, so 
they adapt themselves more readily to the ordinary course 
of education. Minds of the philosophic cast as distin- 
guished from those last mentioned, whose characteris- 
tics are symmetry of faculty, and power, are very often 
destitute of the qualities which give a man a decisive 
advantage over all with whom he has to do ; in truth philo- 
sophic minds, though distinguished on particular ground, 
often take their station below the general level, in other 
respects : the eminence is intellectual merely, and it has 
its sphere. Its early indications are not obscure : — they 
are such as some strong specific taste — the insatiable 
thirst of knowledge, whether general or particular — an apti- 
tude for acquisition, with, usually, a faint relish for the or- 
dinary sports of boyhood. 

But the class includes varieties ; such, for example, as 
the strictly philosophical mind, which tends towards the 
highest generalizations ; and this order of mind demands a 
nice discrimination, inasmuch as it is likely to be late deve- 
loped : its characteristic is a loose hold of mere matters of 
fact — names, dates, and unassociated particulars ; and a 
much greater readiness in pursuing its own analysis of a 
knotty subject, than in catching the explanation of the dif- 
ficulty which may be offered by the teacher. There is 
next, what might be called the scientific, as distinguished a 
little from the purely philosophical mind ; for in this in- 
stance the tastes are of a more determinate sort, and soon 
find their congenial elements, whether mathematical, me- 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 163 

chanical, or physiological. Cases of this sort are liable to 
little obscurity, and they are easily dealt with. We might 
then name the talent of observation, directed toward the 
mineral, animal, or vegetable world : this too is a clearly 
determined faculty ; and though susceptible of culture, is 
not to be diverted from its chosen objects. Such too, are 
the talents and tastes which impels individuals toward 
some one of the fine arts — music, painting, sculpture, archi- 
tecture. The destination of nature, in these cases, if it be 
decisive enough to endure a little discouragment, ought not 
to be opposed. A parent may indeed wish something else 
for his son ; bnt the attempt to turn the original bent of 
the mind will probably not be of happy issue. 

Then, if it may range under the same general class, 
there is the taste and talent for language, which also, when 
manifested in early years, is usually too decisive to leave 
room for the endeavour to divert it; nor do I see why a 
parent should wish to disappoint a talent of this kind, avail- 
able as it is to useful purposes. 

The general rule, applicable to the culture of minds in- 
dicating any of these particular tastes, is, I think, to favour 
the expansion of it only so far as to avoid a vexatious oppo- 
sition ; while we mainly urge those pursuits which, if they 
be delayed until the time when a young man must be left 
to follow the bent of his genius, are likely to be neglected. 
The present course of the physical sciences is such as to 
impose a necessity upon those who cultivate single branch- 
es, to make themselves well informed on all points of phi- 
losophy, even the most remote ; for the distinction of our 
modern philosophy, in all its departments, is, first the ex- 
act division of labour ; and then, the free and frequent 
communion that is kept up among those who are pursuing 
different paths, involving so much information on the part 
of each, as shall qualify him to render his correspondence 
with the body as advantageous as possible to himself, and 



164 HOME EDUCATION : 

to others. This point ought to be particularly kept in 
view by teachers who may have the charge of youth likely 
to devote themselves to the sciences, or the intellectual 
arts. 

But we have yet to dispose of our third class of gifted 
minds ; — namely, those distinguished by the force or rich- 
ness of the imaginative faculty. On this ground difficul- 
ties present themselves. Our course however is pretty 
clear, in the first place, when the imaginative tendency is 
only of that moderate and temperate sort which may safely 
be cherished, and which admits of being worked into the ge- 
neral elements of the character, so as to constitute, ultimate- 
ly, nothing more than an agreeable distinction of the mind, 
securing for it the mild enjoyments of taste and refined 
feeling. Or secondly, we may know what to do, when this 
same element of mind, although decisively predominant, is 
associated with the active qualities of the understanding, 
and with that energy of the moral sense, which, together, 
form the orator : — in this case a path is open to the gifted 
mind, approvable to common sense ; and the teacher will 
know how to adapt his course of instruction to the probable 
destination of his pupil, whether to the pulpit, the bar, or 
the senate. 

But what is to be said if the case we have to do with is 
one of those, happily not very frequent, and yet unhappily 
too frequent, to which the luckless term genius is applied? 
I mean poetic and sensitive genius. It would generally, 
in such instances, be a fruitless attempt, nor is it certain 
that it would be a justifiable one, to crush the peculiarity of 
nature, or violently to thwart her intentions. Neverthe- 
less, inasmuch as minds of this order are to be regarded as 
destined, if their gift actually expand itself, and be indulg- 
ed, to misfortune and exquisite suffering — as victims, doom- 
ed to bleed for the entertainment of the public, a parent 
cannot be blamed who labours, by all gentle means, to turn 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 165 

off the perilous propensity, and who, without harsh mea- 
sures, as if the writing a sonnet were a treason, yet suc- 
ceeds in solidly founding the character upon some firmer 
bottom of calculable happiness. Pursuits congenial, rather 
than vehemently opposite to the tastes, would perhaps 
afford the best means for diverting the mind from its dan- 
gerous idolatry of the ideal. Nothing is more to be avoid- 
ed than that a parent or teacher should declare war against 
a boy's mental tastes ; or that his loved pursuits should be 
carried on furtively, and as having been formally interdict- 
ed. A thorough amity between teacher and pupil, anima- 
ted by the daily pleasures of intellectual intercourse on 
open ground, is, as we have said already, the indispensable 
condition of Home Education. 

When we come to speak in detail of the culture of the 
several intellectual faculties, the fittest opportunity will 
occur for suggesting such further hints as may seem appli- 
able in the instance of extraordinary talents. This how- 
ever seems to be the place in which to offer a word or two 
relative to the practical distinctions to be made between 
male and female education, which, as we are now suppos- 
ing, may be carried on conjointly at home. And it is cer- 
tain that this combination, while it must leave the two 
methods broadly distinguished, in many points, will approx- 
imate the two, to some extent, and especially render the 
culture bestowed upon the female mind altogether of a 
higher cast than otherwise it is likely to be, or than what 
is often attempted in a boarding school. 

When we speak of male and female education, carried 
on in conjunction, under the parental auspices, it must be 
understood that, although there will be actual association, 
in many pursuits, yet that, after the period of early child- 
hood, it will be proper, if not necessary, for the sake of 
both, to dissociate brothers and sisters in their more seri- 
ous studies. Not to mention some reasons for such a 



166 home education: 

separation which are unconnected with our subject, it will 
be found that the one, or the other order of minds, suffers a 
disadvantage by being compelled to keep to the same pace. 
Boys especially, would not easily be brought up to that 
pitch of strenuous application which in itself, and as a 
habit, is of the utmost importance to them, while in train- 
ing with their sisters. It may indeed happen that the girls 
of a family surpass their brothers in intelligence, and in 
assiduity, and so might with ease be made to advance step 
by step with them, even in the severer studies. Neverthe- 
less the former must be made to buckle on an armour, and 
to gird themselves for a conflict with which it would be 
not merely useless, but a positive disadvantage to the lat- 
ter to have any thing to do. No good end can be answer- 
ed by inuring the female mind to arduous, long-continued, 
mental exertions. 

It is chiefly a moral advantage that boys will derive from 
association with their sisters at home ; and it is chiefly an 
intellectual advantage which will accrue to the latter from 
this combination : for while the girls of a family will leave 
their brothers to advance beyond them in certain arduous 
paths, they will, with them, come under an animating intel- 
lectual treatment, such as it would be very difficult to real- 
ize in training them apart. 

The points of difference between male and female edu- 
cation relate, first, to that natural diversity of tastes, which 
distinguishes the two, from the very dawn of the mind. 

It must be theorists, not parents, or not the parents of 
many children, who attribute this diversity to arbitrary cir- 
cumstances of treatment. But if, as is manifest, it result 
from the constitution of nature, it should be respected and 
allowed for. Taking what is proper to male education as 
our standard, then female education should be modified in 
respect of the tastes of the female mind, by never going 
very far, if ever at all, from the pleasurable associations of 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 167" 

intellectual pursuits — by keeping up a constant correspond- 
ence with pure and agreeable moral sentiments (while boys 
are led on, far and wide, in paths thoroughly abstracted 
from any such ideas) — by having much more to do with 
the concrete, with instances and particular facts, than with 
abstract principles — by employing thoughts and hours prin- 
cipally with the observation, collection, and manipulation, 
of actual forms, species, and specimens ; and by allowing 
more time to the elegancies of literature (beside female 
accomplishments) than to what passes under the term eru- 
dition. 

In the next place, the two methods of culture should 
differ in regard to the difference of Power, which distin- 
guishes the male and female mind. Every day, in society, 
we may meet with women equal to, or surpassing men in 
intelligence ; but if male and female minds, of apparently 
equal intelligence, are brought into comparison, very few 
instances will occur in which the latter are not far inferior 
to the former in power. This disparity may be attributed 
in part to habit and exercise ; but it is seen to attach, 
nearly in the same proportion, to the earliest age. It would 
be a cruelty therefore to require girls to perform the tasks 
that should be exacted of their brothers. This mental 
power is — a power of continued application, and a power 
of grasping and of retaining complex notions : it is strength, 
and it is force. 

Again : some allowance ought, as I am inclined to 
think, to be made in the culture of the female mind for 
what I would not call an organic difference of structure, if 
I could find a term, near to my meaning, and not so liable 
to misconstruction. I am not however attempting to treat 
the subject in the abstract, but practically : and in relation 
to practice it comes nearly to the same, whether we assume 
an organic mental difference, or only suppose certain facul- 
ties to be much less strongly developed in the one class of 



168 HOME EDUCATION °. 

minds than in the other. Now, if a very few instances are 
excepted, it may I think be affirmed that the female mind 
almost wants the genuine faculty of abstraction, especially 
that form of it whence result philosophical generalization, 
and mechanical invention. This deficiency in the leading 
mental power makes itself felt in all the higher processes 
of culture, and in whatever involves ratiocination. Women 
indeed are often — very often, sooner in possession of the 
most important practical truths than men ; and when pos- 
sessed of them, hold them more firmly ; but they reach 
these useful principles — principles of conduct, by the clue 
of instinct and sentiment ; that is to say, by the immediate 
guidance of nature, not by ascertaining premises, deducing 
inferences, and drawing conclusions. Men err so often 
as they do by reasoning illogically, or on false assump- 
tions : when women err it is by yielding to illusive repre- 
sentations, or from want of some instinctive feminine sen- 
timent. 

Parents therefore, in conducting the education of their 
daughters, and especially when conjoined with that of their 
sons, need not perplex themselves with the attempt to lead 
the former on the path of abstraction, in any one of those 
studies which involve it. They may indeed be made ac- 
quainted with all the facts whence abstraction takes its 
start, or in which it ends ; but with the process itself they 
need not much concern themselves. A due regard to this 
point of difference will affect, in some instances, the choice 
of studies, and oftener the methods of teaching, and the 
kind of exercises allotted to the two classes of minds. 
Much disappointment and loss of time may be saved by a 
clear perception, from the first, of that difference which na- 
ture has made in the very structure of the female mind. 

Once more, and as it is very obvious, the methods of 
teaching, and the objects of study, should have respect to 
the very different Destination of men and women in life. 



MENTAL DIVERSITIES. 169 

This point is too well understood to need any enlargement ; 
nor does it seem requisite to corroborate the dictates of 
common sense in opposition to the absurdity of the endea- 
vour, which has been sometimes made, and defended, to 
fit girls to do that which it is certain they will never be called 
to do. All along I assume, on the part of parents, a vigor- 
ous good sense, and a firm adherence to great and well- 
sanctioned principles. We save ourselves therefore the 
labour of refuting any thing which clearly stands con- 
demned by maxims generally admitted. 

The specific intentions of female education, considered 
in contrast with that of the other sex, are three ; — first, to 
vivify, elevate, and inform those intellectual tastes in wo- 
man, which may be the means of happiness to herself, and 
which exclude tastes that are frivolous, or pernicious : — se- 
condly, to render her the attractive companion of man, and 
to put her into communication with the world of mind ; not 
indeed to explore it, but to tread its beaten paths in all di- 
rections ; and lastly, and as a special object, female edu- 
cation should keep in view a woman's probable destina- 
tion to teach what she has learned. This latter intention, 
may justify some more exact and arduous methods of study 
than otherwise would appear to be necessary. And let me 
be allowed to remind parents that how secure soever may 
be, to-day, their possession of affluence, and however un- 
likely it may seem that their daughters should be compelled 
to look to their accomplishments as the means of indepen- 
dence, it is a wise caution to fit them for a possible reverse 
of fortune. Moreover, indulging as I do the hope that, in 
a larger number of instances than heretofore, home educa- 
tion for girls may be adopted, I cannot forget that any such 
change would, so far as it extended, occasion a call for the 
assistance of well-informed young women, to conduct the 
routine of learning, under the direction of parents ; for it 
is not to be supposed that they should be able, personally 

15 



170 HOME EDUCATION : 

and alone, to carry forward the various exercises of ari 
elaborate education. 

At the commencement of this chapter, I referred to the 
fact, that, while it is the object of moral training to reduce 
individual peculiarities to a conformity with the one 
standard of excellence, it is, on the contrary, the intention 
of intellectual culture to enhance and to cherish any per- 
sonal and peculiar talents, with a view at once to the 
advantage of the individual, and the benefit of the commu- 
nity. But now, and in concluding what I have at present 
to say of the distinction between male and female educa- 
tion, there is room, I think, for the general rule, that 
although to enhance the special talent of a man be a pru- 
dential and proper course, we may, in the culture of the 
female mind, well aim rather to equalize and soften down 
the individual intellectual character, than to give promi- 
nence to what might distinguish it. The part of woman 
is not to devote herself to a calling ; nor should it be 
her ambition to shine as a proficient in a single art or 
branch of science, but ^to possess a liberal acquaintance 
with all studies, and a graceful ability in all the elegant art3. 



CHAPTER VIIT. 

ANALYSIS OF THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES, SO FAR AS 
RELATES TO THE CULTURE OF EACH. 

It does not appear that any of our prevalent systems of 
education is founded upon the principle of bestowing dis- 
tinct and systematic culture upon the several intellectual 
faculties : nor, in fact, have I known where to find well- 
digested or sufficient instructions of this kind, such as I 
might adopt in conducting the education of my own chil- 
dren. I am therefore labouring to supply what I have per- 
sonally felt the want of, and I entertain the -hope, that, on 
this ground, I may be able to render some substantial aid 
to parents and teachers. 

It is true that, of late, attention has been given to the 
very important distinction between a blind endeavour to 
impart a certain amount of knowledge, on specific subjects, 
and that more enlightened method which, irrespective of 
the measure of attainments actually made by the learner, 
aims to give to each of the powers of the mind a training 
and a habit, such as shall secure to the individual the 
highest possible future advantage in the employment of 
whatever endowments nature may have conferred upon 
him : and yet, while the general principle has been ad- 
verted to, it has been but sparingly applied to the business 
of education ; and scarcely at all followed out in reference 
to the mental powers, separately considered. 



172 HOME EDUCATION : 

The first of the above-named methods is necessarily 
the one which must be pursued in schools ; while the lat- 
ter is well adapted to the circumstances of private edu- 
cation, and, if ably carried out, may more than compensate 
for the disadvantages acknowledged to attach to the do- 
mestic system. 

It is very true, that the mere conveyance of those 
branches of knowledge which constitute a school course, 
does, in fact, carry with it and imply, a training of the 
faculties ; and such a training as may be altogether a suf- 
ficient preparation for entering upon the common engage- 
ments of life ; but we have in view something more than 
this. 

And yet, in speaking, as I am about to do, of the culture 
of the intellectual faculties severally, I by no means intend 
that each, singly, and separately, and in formal consecu- 
tive order, should engage the attention of the teacher ; as if 
he were first and exclusively to bestow his pains upon the 
development and exercise of the power which stands first 
on the list, and then, in due course, to proceed to the 
second, and so on. Nothing could be much more ill- 
judged, or impracticable, than such a plan of procedure. 
What is really meant is this : — first, that the teacher 
should, himself, distinctly have in prospect the several ends 
he is to aim at, in the general culture of the mind, so as 
shall enable him to secure, at the last, the energetic and well- 
balanced action of all parts of the mental machinery ; and 
secondly, that, in aiming at these ends, he should observe, 
as nearly as he can, the order of nature ; that is to 
say, should not anticipate late developed faculties, nor 
put the mind wrong at the outset, by doing first what 
should be done last, and last what should have been pre- 
liminary. 

It is very possible, even while we avoid the error of stim- 
ulating the faculties too early, yet to occasion some lasting 



ANALYSIS OF THE MIND. 173 

injury, or at least to fail of effecting as much good as we 
might, merely by following an order not in harmony with 
those laws, whether physical or psychological, which regu- 
late the growth and gradual expansion of the mind. On 
this ground there can be no safety except in an implicit 
compliance with the method which nature herself suggests ; 
and our part is to watch what is going on spontaneously 
in the minds of children, and to follow the process, with 
our artificial aids, as it advances. 

Another preliminary hint is due both to myself and to 
the reader, and it is this — namely, that I by no means un- 
dertake any such responsibility as that of engaging to offer 
a strictly philosophical analysis of the intellectual faculties. 
To attempt this, in the actual state of what is called " Men- 
tal Science," would lead to many difficult discussions ; nor 
is it certain that the practical result of such an analysis, 
even if successfully conducted, would materially differ 
from the system which may be founded upon the popularly 
understood distribution of the powers of the mind. In one 
or two instances, it is true, I shall find it necessary to di- 
rect the teacher's attention to certain modes of intellectual 
action that have been too little regarded, but which yet it is 
of substantial importance to elicit : and it will be unavoid- 
able, moreover, to extend a little the meaning of some few 
terms, and to restrict a little some others ; but generally, I 
endeavour to adhere as closely as possible, as well in sys- 
tem as in phraseology, to what is universally received, and 
to what is understood by all persons of cultivated minds. 
A practical treatise is not the place for promulgating philo- 
sophical theories ; even if in the present instance the author 
had a theory to propound. 

Besides, and this is particularly to be observed, as a phi- 
losophical analysis of the mind must be more exact and se- 
vere, so must it also be more comprehensive, than could 
be of any utility in relation to the purposes of a practical 
15* 



174 HOME education: 

work. In an inquiry of the former kind nothing must be 
omitted ; but in the latter, nothing need be included which 
does not claim attention, as the object of culture. Thus 
for example, I make no mention, in this chapter, of those 
elementary faculties which connect the mind with the ex- 
ternal world ; for I do not think any valuable purpose is 
secured by those schemes for training the senses, or for 
developing and sharpening the powers of perception, which 
have been propounded of late. Nor, on the other hand, 
does the present work include those subjects which belong 
to a period of the course of study more advanced than that 
embraced by a system of home education : the arduous 
path of mature study lies beyond our immediate view. 



The want of an unexceptionable term, sanctioned by 
general use, meets us at the first step of this analysis. 
What I mean to speak of I must, though far from satisfied 
with the phrase, call the Conceptive Faculty ; or that 
mental power by means of which what has already been 
present to the perceptions returns, or is brought back to 
the mind, in the absence of the object, with more or less 
distinctness, and is then dealt with as a material of cogita- 
tion ; or, after serving to lead on other ideas, disappears. 

It is this power (a power both active and passive) of en- 
tertaining Ideas apart from sensations and perceptions, 
which seems to be the first point of distinction, marking 
the superiority of the human mind : not indeed that the 
animal orders are altogether destitute of any such faculty, 
for their possession of it may be indubitably established ; 
but the same facts which prove its existence, as for exam- 
ple, in the horse, the dog, the elephant, exclude the suppo- 
sition that it is more than a sort of moonlight, as compared 



ANALYSIS OF THE MIND. 175 

with the splendour of the same power in man. It is the 
Conceptive Faculty which gives the earliest indication of 
Intellectuality in the infant, after the perceptions have 
become pretty well defined. Long before any other pro- 
perly mental operation can be detected, the infant gives 
proof that it has already come into possession of a not 
slenderly furnished treasury of images, which, without its 
bidding, take their turns in enlivening its otherwise vapid 
existence ; and which, although as yet it has acquired no 
control over them, do not fail to obey the great laws that 
are to regulate all the mental operations of the adult. 

A thousand familiar facts give evidence of the existence 
of this faculty, in the earliest months of life ; and a single 
and conclusive one is afforded by an infant's instantaneous 
recognition of the most imperfect representative symbol of 
a known object, and its ready connexion of an idea of such 
an object with the name of it, a few times repeated. 

Too little attention has, I think, hitherto been given to 
the broad fact that a child's mental existence is constitut- 
ed almost entirely of the workings of the conceptive facul- 
ty. The human mind, in its first period, may be said to 
be, all Ideality ; for it is exclusively so during the half of 
its time, or more, which is passed in sleep ; chiefly so 
whenever no vivid impressions are made upon the senses ; 
and so, to a great extent, while left to find its own spark- 
ling felicity among its toys and jimcracks. 

The little regard which has been paid to this main char- 
acteristic of infancy and childhood has shown itself in the 
neglect of the many obvious means that offer themselves 
for giving direction and vividness to the faculty, considered 
as the prime element of the intellectual life. Yet it is cer- 
tain that more than a little may be done in this way, and to 
great advantage ; and as it may be made to appear that 
the rudiment of the power and splendour of some minds, 
as compared with others, is to be sought for in this same 



176 HOME EDUCATION: 

faculty, we may with reason consider the early culture of 
it as constituting the principal business of early education. 
To this capital point then I shall have to direct the teach- 
er's attention, in the next chapter, with some amplitude of 
detail. 

Very soon after the conceptive faculty has come into full 
activity, and indeed without any perceptible interval of 
time, the mind gives evidence, and in a great variety of 
modes, that it has acquired a Sense of Resemblance, and 
in a little time after, a Sense of Analogy, which, although 
in philosophical strictness they should be kept apart, may 
with convenience, and in relation to practice, be treated of 
in conjunction. Here again a wide field is open to us, on 
which much may be effected by an intelligent and well di- 
rected teacher: and it is precisely on this field that should 
be laid the broad and solid foundation on which, at a re- 
moter period, the active faculties may rear the superstruc- 
ture of mental superiority. It is to the above-mentioned 
faculties, passive as they are, more than active, that the 
reader's attention is confined in the present volume. 

No term employed in speaking of the states and opera- 
tions of the mind is more loose and ambiguous, than the 
word memory ; for it sometimes means what is only a 
modification of the conceptive faculty ; sometimes, the re- 
tension of arbitrarily associated series of particulars, or of 
trains of words and sentences ; and sometimes this same 
phrase is employed when we are speaking of the compli- 
cated operations of the higher faculties — the sense of ana- 
logy — the power of abstraction, and the imaginative percep- 
tions. Nevertheless, unwilling as I am to deviate from 
ordinary modes of speech in a popular and practical work, 
I shall treat of the culture of the memory as if the subjects 
therein embraced were more closely related than in fact 
they are. 



ANALYSIS OF THE MIND. 177 

The readerwho is conversant with mental philosophy may 
probably expect to see the Association of Ideas, or the 
Law of Suggestion, as it is otherwise termed, mentioned as 
an object of culture : but he will find that whatever bears 
upon this subject, in a practical sense, is substantially in- 
cluded in the culture either of the Memory, or of the Fa- 
culty of Abstraction, and of Reasoning ; or is embraced in 
the treatment of the Imaginative Tastes. 

A most important step is made in the business of educa- 
tion, when we come, in a formal manner to give exercise to 
the Power of Abstraction. It is this power that is the 
chief prerogative of man, and the main spring of his ad- 
vancement in every path of knowledge and civilization. It 
is this, in its higher degrees, that distinguishes one human 
mind so vastly from another, and is the primary reason of 
the achievements of the few who lead the way in philoso- 
phy and the arts. To this point then the most, exact and 
systematic attention must be given ; for it is certain, on the 
one hand, that any scheme of education which leaves the 
faculty of abstraction either uncultured or accidentally de- 
veloped, must be extremely faulty ; and on the other, that, 
if a method of training consonant with the principles of the 
human mind be digested, and ably put in practice, and the 
intention of which shall be to give the highest possible 
advantage to this First Power of the rational nature, 
every thing else will be easy and prosperous. 

The Ratiocinative Faculty — a complex habit, is, in the 
order of nature, late developed, and those who would see it 
expand under the most favourable auspices must direct 
their cares, not to the endeavour to anticipate its proper 
season, but rather to the means of carrying the mind on to 
a certain point of maturity, before any serious exertion of it 
is promoted. Nevertheless, from a very early period, and 



178 HOME education: 

especially after the time when the faculty of abstraction 
comes under culture, the teacher will keep in view what is 
to follow, and will watch for, and improve, any favourable 
opportunities that may occur for giving a little initiative 
play to the reasoning power, so far as nature herself may 
appear to have developed it. To what an extent — an ex- 
tent altogether incalculable, does the well-being of the in- 
dividual, and of the community, depend upon the sound- 
ness, and the consistency, of the culture that may be be- 
stowed upon the reasoning faculty, in early life ! 

The Imagination — the imaginative sentiments and tastes, 
and the semi-moral emotions and habits of mind therewith 
connected, next claim to be considered : and there will 
then, and in the last place, remain to be treated several 
highly important mental habits, which bear upon the suc- 
cessful pursuit, either of common interests, or of philoso- 
phical, professional, or literary eminence. 

The reader, it is probable, may not at once acquiesce in a 
distribution of subjects which gives the first place to the 
Conceptive Faculty, and the last to the Imagination ; thus 
severing by as great an interval as possible, faculties held 
to be intimately connected, and which are often spoken of 
as if the one were only a modification of the other : I can 
only say, in this place, that I consider it as indubitable — 
that the conceptive power is the very earliest to appear, of 
the properly intellectual elements of our nature — the snow- 
drop of the mind's flower-garden ; and that the imagination 
and the imaginative sentiments, are the very last to be de- 
veloped, where nature takes her own course ; it is the rich- 
coloured chrysanthemum of the intellectual parterre. So 
late in their appearance are the genuine imaginative emo- 
tions, and so nearly do they bear upon the confines of per- 
sonal or adult mental culture, that, except in regard to cer- 
tain commencements and preparations, the subject might 



Analysis of the mind. 179 

altogether have been excluded, as not belonging to Home 
Education. 

But even when the most assiduous regard has been given 
to the training of the several faculties and sensibilities of 
the mind, there remains a not less important labour, though 
of a rather indefinite kind, the intention of which is 
to form and to confirm certain practical habits, upon the 
perfection of which, as I have just said, the efficiency of 
the mind, in relation either to common or to professional 
pursuits, almost entirely depends. The general intellec- 
tuality which ought to be the fruit of a course such as the 
one we are now projecting, requires (if indeed we have in 
view any thing beyond the mere accomplishment of the in- 
dividual) to be brought to bear, in a definite manner, upon 
the arduous labours of real life, whether commercial, pro- 
fessional, philosophical, or literary. What I am speaking 
of might be called a second education, which, after a youth 
has received his quantum of intellectual furniture, shall fit 
him to contend with specific difficulties, and to secure suc- 
cess in the particular line to which he may addict himself. 

Much more, in this way, might be done than is often at- 
tempted : and after a young man's destination in life ha3 
been fixed, he should undergo a discipline, aptly contrived, 
with a view to the critical points on which success is known 
to turn in that peculiar path of exertion. Whoever is 
conversant with active or scientific pursuits, or with the 
several professions, is well aware of the fact, that, among 
a number of competitors in any line, it is not the man that 
seems, abstractedly, the best qualified to bear the palm, 
who ordinarily carries the prize; but (excluding the not 
infrequent instances in which mere self-confidence snatch- 
es what should have been given to merit) the successful 
man is he who best knows how to deal with the knots 
of the business he undertakes. In every course of mental 
eertion, there is a certain portion, in disposing of which 



180 HOME EDUCATION '. 

different minds are pretty evenly measured, one against 
another ; but when all reach the knot, it is, perhaps, one 
only who instantly untwists it, and by this means gets some 
way ahead of his associates. Now, if there be something 
of natural tact in this sort of ready ability, there is also 
something which may be acquired, or which may be per- 
fected by a proper discipline ; and I think such a discipline 
may be laid down and exemplified in a practicable manner, 
and that it should occupy a prominent place in a complete 
education. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CULTURE OF THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 

The phrase adopted in the present instance is, as I have 
said, far from being unexceptionable ; nevertheless, it has 
the sanction as well of colloquial as of philosophical usage, 
and the objections to which it may be liable will be of little 
importance, if, in the end, the reader understands what is 
here meant by it, and in what way the faculty, however it 
might be designated, should be treated in the business of 
education. 

Too little regard has, I think, been paid to that leading 
and early developed element of the mental constitution of 
which we are now to speak ; nor does the fact seem to 
have been distinctly noticed, that it is the chief characteris- 
tic of the first years of life; nor do I know that the culture 
of it has ever been systematically treated of, or attempted. 
And yet there is hardly any intellectual energy, more sus- 
ceptible of improvement by discipline and exercise, or more 
likely to repay the pains bestowed upon it as conducive to 
ulterior mental operations. 

Nature, for purposes which it is not very difficult to di- 
vine, has allowed an absolute predominance to the concep- 
tive faculty during the season of infancy, and has granted 
it a principal share in the mental economy during the suc- 
ceeding years of childhood. In saying this, I am by no 
means thinking of unusual instances of imaginative de- 
velopment ; but of human nature at large. 

16 



182 HOME EDUCATION : 

Impressions made upon the senses by external objects 
return to the mind, as every one knows, in the absence of 
the objects ; and this happens especially with the objects of 
hearing and of sight ; and most so, with the latter. It is, 
in fact, from the predominance of our conceptions of visi- 
ble objects, that we have come to apply the words — idea 
and image, to the entire class of repeated impressions, 
whencesoever received. The distinctness of our ideas, 
their permanence, and the power they exert over us, de- 
pend upon various circumstances, such as the frequency 
of the original impression, or its peculiarity, or the vivid- 
ness of the emotions with which it may happen to have 
been associated. 

Yet these reiterated impressions of external objects or 
ideas, do not always, or usually, return precisely as they 
entered the mind, but undergo new combinations, infinitely 
diversified ; some of which combinations are formed inde- 
pendently of any act of the mind, while others are the pro- 
duct of its deliberate intention : they also follow each 
other, in part, in obedience to certain constant principles 
of association, and, in part, in consequence of the mind's 
controlling power over them ; and it is here, principally, 
that we find room for that culture of which the faculty is 
susceptible. 

Yet, inasmuch as the elementary ideas of the external 
world return not precisely as they come, but in modes in- 
finitely diversified, and under new forms of combination, 
or, as we might say, of configuration, it is manifest, that a 
small stock of materials — such a stock, for example, as 
may have been accumulated by an infant, during its first 
two years, will be enough to work up into forms ever and 
again diversified. Nevertheless, how much soever diver- 
sified, the difference between a fortuitous train of ideas 
furnished by the Conceptive Faculty, and a fixed train 
supplied by the Memory, is distinctly kept in view ; and 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 183 

the clear preservation of this distinction is essential to the 
soundness of the mind ; for to be liable to uncertainty, in 
endeavouring to distinguish the records of memory from 
the creations of the fancy, is the symptom of an impaired 
and decaying intellect. 

Although the predominance of the Conceptive Faculty 
during the first years of life has been so little considered 
as not to have been calculated upon in our schemes of 
education, yet nothing is more conspicuous than the fact. 
The instances in which its operation may be observed are 
of several kinds, as first — whenever any familiar object or 
person is recognized, after an interval, by a child ; as when 
a brother, or sister, or a nurse, after an absence, is greeted 
by a smile of familiarity, and the arms are extended ; for 
an infant, in this instance, connects the now present object 
— not with the same object before seen ; but with the 
image of it conserved by the mind. The reader, if not 
much accustomed to analyze his own notions of mental 
operations, may perhaps need to have the simple fact 
pointedly referred to, that what is meant by remembering, 
or recognizing something now before the eye, is — the con- 
necting the immediate impression on the senses, with a 
previously admitted and treasured idea or image, and 
which has been preserved by the mind with so much 
fidelity as to leave not a shadow of doubt, in most cases, 
concerning the identity of the object. So soon, 
therefore, as an infant is observed to recognize any 
thing or person, and of which recognition it gives indubita- 
ble signs, so soon may we be sure that the conceptive 
faculty has come into operation, and this happens certainly 
in the third month, and often much earlier. 

Or if we go on to the time when the notion of property 
has just got a lodgement in the mind, we may meet with a 
pertinent instance of the vivacity of the conceptive power, 
when the little stickler for its rights finds its own horse or 



184 HOME EDUCATION : 

doll in its brother's or sister's hand, and then, running to 
find brother's or sister's horse or doll, eagerly discusses 
the question of meum and tuum, and, notwithstanding the 
close resemblance of the two subjects of debate, fixes its 
grasp upon the real and genuine meum. That is to say, 
this same lisping assertor of its rights, has in its brain a pic- 
ture of its plaything so exact and particular, that it serves 
at any time as a tally, by means of which it may recover 
the archetype. Yet this same mental miniature of the 
hobby, or the rose-lipped darling, does not merely come 
back, when recalled by the presence of the original, but it 
floats before the internal eye, called for, and uncalled, wak- 
ing and sleeping ; of which further fact, with all its endless 
consequences, we have evidence enough ; as for instance, 
when to the little girl, lost in reverie, we suddenly put the 
question — What are you thinking about ? About dolly. — 
About dolly — which dolly 1 Oh my best dolly that move3 
her eyes ! Sometimes indeed dolly's own dear name is 
heard muttered in sleep, when, as we need not doubt, the 
fair image is vividly present to the fancy. 

Nor is this all, for while the doating little mamma, just 
referred to, has her " own dolly " on her lap, or is dressing 
and undressing it, or is taking it abroad, or preparing its 
breakfast, and despatching it to school, the conceptive 
faculty is working in another and a copious manner, and so 
as to involve all sorts of consequences to the future char- 
acter. For the object in the hand becomes the nucleus of 
a hundred captivating conceptions of things not present, 
but which, by the aid of the mind's creative powers, stand 
forth out of vacancy, almost as distinctly as if actually before 
the eye. Dolly is the heroine of a drama, vividly acted in 
the soul's little theatre. Hence, that is to say from the 
richness and vivacity of the conceptive faculty, comes all, 
or nearly all the never-failing delight of which toys are tha 
occasion. 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 185 

But again : this same faculty gives evidence of its ac- 
tivity by the way in which its operations are connected with 
graphic representations of familiar objects. To this sub- 
ject I have already alluded, and to avoid the appearance of 
repetition, will here only observe that, by the aid of very 
rude sketches, adapted to the purpose, the curious reader 
may, if he pleases, and in the way of experiment, satisfy him- 
self as to the extent and exactness of a child's conceptive 
power. It would be easy to specify a hundred modes in 
which this experiment might be varied. I must however 
pass on to notice the still more striking proof furnished of 
the refinement which the conceptive faculty reaches, at a 
very early age, by the electric velocity, and the precision 
with which images stored in the mind connect themselves 
with arbitrary signs, that is to say, with words. 

This curious subject, familiar as it is to those conver- 
sant with mental philosophy, and familiar too, as a common 
fact, to every one, may deserve a little attention from the 
reader who hitherto has not much thought of it. We take 
then the instance of a child of three years old, and one of 
only ordinary intelligence — any family may furnish a paral* 
lei example. Accustomed to the objects of a rural and in- 
land home, he accompanied his mamma, let us suppose, a 
year ago, to a gay watering place. At different times, dur- 
ing the intervening months, the striking objects of that 
world of wonders have been recalled to his recollection in 
vivid language ; and now, if questioned concerning these 
objects, and many others therewith associated, although the 
questions are varied as much as we please in phraseology, 
and although new points of view are taken, he will con-? 
vince his catechist that there is present to his mind's eye a 
not obscure set of pictures — of the sea, in its changing as- 
pects — of the baths — of the buildings — of the. equipages — 
of the downs. Or show him, unexpectedly, a view of the 
Pavilion, or of the chain pier, and it will be unquestionable 

16* 



186 HOME EDUCATION : 

that the things seen so long ago exist still, by their perfect 
images, in his mind. 

Now in this case, and facts of the same sort meet us in 
a hundred different forms, we have not only, as in those 
just before noted, the recognition of an object, as one that 
has been seen before, when again it presents itself to the 
eye; nor the recognition of it as rudely pictured, nor the 
spontaneous recurrence of the image to the fancy ; but there 
is the recovery of the image, in all its variety of adjuncts, 
as connected with words. Moreover, this connexion, so 
early established between images stored by the conceptive 
faculty, and certain words or sentences, is not of so confin- 
ed a sort as that it is only a particular series of sounds that 
has become associated with the train of images ; but it is 
language abstractedly that has so linked itself with images, 
and with the separate qualities and incidental aspects of 
objects. That this is the fact is easily proved, either by 
our describing recollected objects in a variety of phrases, 
and which will be severally recognized ; or, in a still more 
striking manner, by our employing known epithets to de- 
scribe objects that have never been actually seen. , And 
yet in this latter case we may easily convince ourselves, 
that a real and vivid idea has been called up in the child's 
mind, as thus — Did you ever see a crocodile 1 No. But 
you have seen a print of one : — well; what sort of animal 
is it? It is so and so — . . . That will do : now I will de- 
scribe to you another sort of animal : think then of a crea- 
ture somewhat like a crocodile, yet so large that, if it were 
on the lawn, it would reach from one of the gates to the 
other : and think of it covered with scales, yellow, green, 
and crimson, sparkling in the sun ; and having broad wings, 
so that it could flutter about like a bat ; and with a long tail, 
crackling and rattling, as it flies, like the post-boy's whip: 
and think of its eyes glaring in the twilight, like the lamps 
of the coach which you saw coming along the road last 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 187 

night: — now can you fancy such a creature? — Well then, 
now do you tell me, in your own way, what sort of thing 
we have been thinking of. A vivacious child, in such an 
instance, will give his own description of the primeval dra- 
gon he has fancied ; and he will do so in such terms as 
shall make it evident that he is not repeating remembered 
phrases merely ; but is actually employing abstract and 
concrete words, as representatives of the conception that 
has lodged itself in his mind. The adjectives he chooses, 
whether the most appropriate or not, are such as have be- 
come firmly ticketed in his little brain to the sensible quali- 
ties they stand for. 

If, during the early years of life, and before serious cares 
and duties occupy the thoughts, a full half of the waking 
hours are given to the workings of the conceptive power, 
we cannot but notice the significant fact that nature has 
also put under its influence all the hours of sleep which, 
with a young child, are usually a half of the twenty-four. 
I think that none who have attentively watched children in 
sleep, and have had frequent opportunities for so doing, 
under a variety of circumstances, can doubt that the mind 
of a sleeping child is ordinarily, if not constantly (which I 
fully believe) occupied with dreams. Even the soundest 
and most healthful sleep affords indications hardly to be 
misunderstood of the busy shifting of the scenes that are 
entertaining the little brain. If it were here proper to pur- 
sue at length a subject of this sort, I could adduce a vari- 
ety of instances, proving or illustrating the point which, at 
present, I must assume as undisputed. 

Now when we consider that dreams are, as to their vi- 
vidness, and the impression of reality, little, if at all infe- 
rior to actual impressions on the senses, we cannot doubt 
that some specific purpose, in relation to the mechanism 
of the intellectual system, is intended to be secured by the 
arrangement which throws the soul, during so large a por- 



188 home education: 

tion of its entire existence, in early life, wholly upon the 
materials of its ideality. Some curious speculations offer 
themselves on this ground, which must here be omitted. 
There is however one conjecture, which, as connected with 
our subject in a practical manner, may be adverted to. I 
think then it is a constant concomitant of dreaming to con- 
nect words with what is passing before the fancy : there is 
a sort of muttering of the names of things, or an incohe- 
rent utterance of the mind's impressions relating to the ob- 
jects present to it : and we know that, in the perturbed 
sleep of a feverish patient, and which is a state wherein, 
owing to the want of animal composure, the dream agi- 
tates the muscular system, and in a manner transpires, so 
as to be dimly perceptible to a bystander — that in such a 
state, there is very usually an audible muttering, or conti- 
nuous whisper, in an ominous sepulchral tone, as if the 
mind were in parley with its own chimeras. 

I am inclined then to think that one of the purposes of 
dreaming, is to bring the conceptive faculty into an unfail- 
ing, or, as we might say, a deep worn usage of connecting 
itself with language. If we recollect how much, in the 
economy of social life, and in the employment of the higher 
faculties, turns upon the instantaneous command of lan- 
guage, and recollect too the miraculous celerity of thought 
required in bringing forward the word wanted at each in- 
stant of continuous discourse, and recollect too that the 
whole of the material of language is purely arbitrary, and 
that, from three thousand, to thirty thousand of these arbi- 
trary signs are required for carrying forward ordinary com- 
munication, we shall not think it surprising that the mind 
needs more than a little, or an occasional drilling in this 
exercise. At an early age — let us say in the seventh year, 
a child uses the entire stock of words known to it with full 
as much celerity of utterance and certainty of recollection 
as he ever does afterwards ; and the acquirement of this 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 189 

ready use of so complicated a machinery, at so early an 
age, seems to imply that the acquisition has been favoured 
by some latent process, in addition to the obvious one of 
the actual and waking use of speech. 

A child indeed often mistakes the meaning of a word, 
and uses it absurdly ; but nothing is more rare, if such a 
thing ever occurs, than for the organic operation of con- 
necting words with thoughts to hitch, or, as one might say 
— get off the pins. A voluble little girl, employing a voca- 
bulary of one, two, or three thousand words, is never stop- 
ped by a jar of the machinery, connecting the word and the 
thought. Now this perfect working of an apparatus so 
complicated, well consists with the belief that the sixteen or 
twenty hours of every day — sleeping or waking, during 
which the conceptive faculty is in undisturbed operation, 
are devoted, in the intention of nature, to the latent pro- 
cess which assimilates ideas and words, in an indissoluble 
manner. 

Even the fitful incoherence and wild caprices of dreams, 
which are their very characteristics, may have their special 
intention, as an exercise, habituating the mind, in its use 
of language, to leap without preparation from one class of 
objects to another, as is required in keeping pace with the 
chance current of ordinary conversation. 

Our practical inference from this supposition goes to en- 
hance the importance of the sort of culture of the concep- 
tive faculty we have in view, inasmuch as it appears to be 
an object intended, and provided for by nature herself, with 
peculiar care. 

The inferior orders, as is manifest, possess that lower 
function of the conceptive faculty which is requisite for the 
recognition of objects, when they are a second time pre- 
sented to the senses. This is apparent in the entire econ- 
omy of animal life ; or in a more special manner it is indi- 
cated by such familiar facts as the knowledge which a horse 



190 HOME EDUCATION °. 

or a dog retains of a road he has only once travelled, and 
the notice he takes of any particular change in its objects, 
such as a fence, instead of a hedge, or a new road laid 
across an old one. But it is doubtful how far, or whether 
at all, any of the inferior classes of minds have the power 
to ponder absent objects, or to entertain the vacant seasons 
of their existence with images flitting before the fancy. 
Something of this sort may be probably conjectured ; but 
it is manifest that, in this respect, the youngest or the ru- 
dest human mind vastly surpasses the most intellectual of 
the brutes. 

It is, as I have said, by the firm linking of the concep- 
tive faculty with words, that we acquire a ready and un- 
failing command of speech ; and it is by means of the asso- 
ciations formed among ideas, whether imaginative or ra- 
tional — concrete or abstract, that the higher faculties exert 
their peculiar energies. The conceptive faculty is in these 
modes the ground- work of the entire intellectual system. 

A little must be said concerning the relation of the 
senses, severally, to the conceptive faculty ; and it will ap- 
pear that, while certain impressions upon the senses are 
retained with the utmost precision and permanency, so as 
to be recognized infallibly after the longest intervals of 
time, when the impression is repeated, they come only in a 
very imperfect manner under the control of the mind, so as 
to be recalled apart from the external object. Thus, for ex- 
ample, the impressions of smell and taste are as well de- 
fined, and as permanent as those of sight ; for a particular 
flavour or scent, as of a fruit or flower, familiar in child- 
hood, and then only, is recognized sixty years afterwards, 
when accidentally met with, and serves to recall a train of 
the bright images of early life. But it is only in a very 
vague manner, if at all, that impressions made upon these 
senses can be recalled to the mind, apart from their ob- 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 191 

jects. It is not quite certain that we can at all think of 
even the most familiar and pungent tastes and smells, en- 
tirely abstracted from the usual visible accompaniments of 
these sensations. Cayenne pepper affects the tongue 
much more vividly than its bright colour does the eye ; but 
in attempting to think of this acrid condiment, its visible 
appearance prevails entirely over the feeble traces left upon 
the mind by the taste ; and I can mentally see it, much 
sooner than mentally taste it. 

It is the same in degree, though not so completely, with 
muscular sensations, with the sensations of touch, and with 
our visceral consciousness. Severe pain, entirely as it en- 
grosses the mind when present, can only be very dimly re- 
membered ; and we must, in this instance, admire the be- 
neficent constitution of our nature ; for if sensations of 
pain, visceral or muscular, returned upon the mind with a 
vividness proportioned to that which belongs to the objects 
of sight, our lives, after having once suffered any extreme 
anguish, would be a perpetual torture. Very few of the 
objects of sight are in themselves, and in a positive manner 
painful. 

The sensations of hearing come next, as to their rela- 
tion to the conceptive power. No sensations are better de- 
fined, none are retained in their full peculiarity longer ; and 
they unquestionably fall under the control of the mind, so 
as to be readily recovered by a mental effort, or quest, and 
without any accompanying aid from the voice, as a man 
hums a tune, to regain the idea of it ; for we think of the 
tone of the voices of our dear friends, long absent — of the 
sound of popular acclamations — of thunder — of the sing- 
ing of birds — of the ticking of a clock, as heard during the 
darkness and stillness of the night ; and especially, mu- 
sical persons can, without any audible aid, mentally repeat 
an air, or even a complicated harmony. 

Yet it is the sensations of sight, that is to say, not its ele- 



192 HOME EDUCATION : 

mentary sensations, but those acquired perceptions which 
give us the notion of things as they are, that bear sway in 
the conceptive faculty. It is to its picture gallery of the 
visible world that the mind retires at every moment when 
it is not occupied by that world itself: it is over these 
images that it exerts a plastic power, recombining the ele- 
ments they consist of, in an infinite diversity of modes ; 
and it is out of these same elements, fantastically consorted, 
that those magic halls are stocked and ornamented, through 
which the soul flits and roams during sleep. 

The furniture of the conceptive faculty, as derived from 
the objects of sight, constitutes the principal wealth of the 
mind, and upon the ready command of these treasures, 
with some specific end in view, depends in great measure 
its power. The quality and the extent of these ideal stores, 
and the degree in which they are available as materials for 
the other faculties to work upon, are a chief reason of the 
vast difference between one mind and another, and gene- 
rally of the difference between cultured and uncultured 
minds. Whatever may be the path of exertion pursued by 
any one, and even if it lead over ground the most remote 
from the regions of the imagination, it will still be true 
that, if the conceptive faculty in the particular department 
which the mind occupies, be full fraught with its proper 
objects, and be prompt in producing its stores, such a mind 
will take the lead among others. 

The statesman, disposing of the driest details of pub- 
lic business, the merchant, calculating the chances of a dis- 
tant enterprise, me lawyer, working his way through the 
most abstruse relations of right and property, all advance 
with rapidity and ease, or with a sluggish and stumbling 
step, according to the vivacity and richness of the concep- 
tive faculty. For just as we comprehend and deal with 
things actually before the eye far more readily and cer- 
tainly than we can with such as are out of sight ; so do 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 193 

we comprehend and deal with things out of sight with an 
ease and confidence directly proportioned to the vividness 
and perfection of the conception, as compared with the 

REALITY. 

Let a man of business select, from the diversity of his 
engagements, that one which seems the most absolutely to 
exclude the visible qualities of things, and he will yet find, 
if he narrowly analyzes the mental operation while this par- 
ticular branch of his business engages his attention, that it 
is very greatly by the aid of the Ideas of objects and per- 
sons as visible, that he retains his hold of the various 
particulars of the calculation, or of the adjustment of inter- 
ests ; and that, if he can fancy himself entirely shorn of 
these ideas, his thoughts would immediately fall into con- 
fusion. 

If it be so in the extreme instances which we have now 
supposed, how much more is it thus on all occasions in 
which the visible forms and qualities of things are imme- 
diately connected with the mental process ! Of what im- 
portance to us is the conceptive faculty while taking our 
part in ordinary conversation, turning as it does upon nar- 
rative — description — comparison — allusion : — of what so- 
vereign importance to the public speaker or writer — to the 
poet and the painter, the sculptor and the architect! And 
it might be shown in detail that the divining skill of the 
physician in realizing to himself the interior condition of 
the animal system, and the adroitness and tact of the sur- 
geon in the performance of obscure operations, turn very 
much upon the exactness and vivacity of the conceptive 
faculty, which we might call the true stethoscope. Whe- 
ther we are distinctly conscious of the fact or not, it may 
be proved that this Ideality, or power of calling up images 
of visible objects, is the broad basis of our mental opera- 
tions, of whatever kind, and whether ordinary or profes- 
sional — whether philosophical or imaginative. 
17 



194 HOME EDUCATION : 

On this ground then it is natural to inquire whether any 
means may be employed, during the course of education, 
for enriching this prime faculty, and for enhancing its ap- 
pliancy and energy. Now while it is admitted that a liberal 
education does, of itself, secure these ends to a great extent, 
I confidently think that much more may be effected in this 
particular than is often attempted. The culture of the 
Reason, and of the Imagination, and the training of the 
mind for special engagements, demand a commencement 
of the process to be made in the culture of the conceptive 
faculty. 

Although not directly related to the subject of intellectual 
culture, I cannot altogether omit to refer to the important 
fact that the immediate object of the emotions and passions 
is, in a large proportion of instances, something which is 
supplied by the mind itself from the stores of its concep- 
tions : it is around the ideas of things and persons that the 
deepest affections of the soul, as well as its most refined 
sentiments, revolve. The condition therefore of the mind, 
in regard to its Ideality, powerfully influences its moral 
state ; and it may safely be said that a mind full stored 
with rational and agreeable materials, or, as we may say, 
pre-occupied, is indirectly secured against the intrusion of 
many dangerous tendencies ; while this same pre-occupa- 
tion consists well with the activity of all the benevolent and 
gentle sympathies. This subject is too copious a one to 
be here pursued; but a passing reference to it may serve 
to give the greater weight to the suggestions that are to 
follow. 

The hints I have to offer in the present chapter might 
be arranged under three heads, the first comprehending 
what relates to the means proper for giving vivacity and 
precision to the conceptive faculty, while the objects 

TTP0N WHICH IT IS EMPLOYED ARE ACTUALLY PRESENT : 

the second, including whatever bears upon its operations 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 195 

IN the absence of those objects; and the third, embracing 
the means to be used for establishing a ready and perfect 
correspondence between Language and the conceptive 
faculty. Nevertheless a somewhat less formal method 
may best insure brevity, in treating the first and second of 
the above-named subjects ; although the last must be 
separately considered. 

It might seem very natural to take it for granted that the 
truth and vivacity of the ideas treasured in the mind, if not 
the command which it afterwards exercises over them, must 
be proportioned to the exactness and activity of the faculty 
of observation; or to the degree of attention that is given 
to whatever passes before the eye. But I do not think it is 
so in fact ; for one meets with very nice observers, and 
with persons who, when questioned on particular points, 
are able to supply the most precise information; but whose 
conceptive faculty is nevertheless poor, cold, and feeble. 
On the other hand some, nor are the instances rare, al- 
though they observe vaguely, yet not only live in a world 
of rich conceptions, but can paint to the life, I mean in 
words, whatever they have seen, or have heard described. 

The habit and power of nice observation is doubtless an 
important object of culture, and I shall have occasion to 
speak of it hereafter ; but the vigour and vivacity of the 
conceptive faculty appears to be in great measure irrespec- 
tive of it, and to depend more directly upon the strength of 
the emotions of which the mind is naturally susceptible. 
This seems in fact to be the law of the conceptive power — 
That the vividness of its impressions are directly as the 
force or intensity of the emotions which may be at work at 
the time when such impressions are received. The recol- 
lection of this principle of the human mind goes far in re^ 
gulating the practical measures of a systematic home edu- 
cation. Many familiar facts establish what we now affirm, 
and show that it is feeling, in its various degrees and kinds, 



196 home education: 

from the gentlest pleasurable sentiments, to the most over- 
whelming hurricane of the passions, that stimulates the 
senses, and fixes indelibly upon the mind the impressions of 
external objects. The poetic character turns upon this very 
connexion between the emotions, or the sensibilities, and 
the conceptive faculty : the poet is one whose keen suscep- 
tibility, or whose profound affections, give a tenfold inten- 
sity to whatever, in external nature, has in any way the 
power to move the human mind. Poetry is — a picture of 
the external world, painted in the vivid colours that are 
supplied by refined and intense emotions. The cherished 
and imperishable recollections of childhood, often as bright 
and clear at eighty as they were at twenty, are those trea- 
sures of the conceptive faculty which have been consigned 
to its keeping under the influence of vivid pleasurable emo- 
tions ; hence it is those chiefly whose early years have 
been passed joyously, and in the country, that retain to ex- 
treme age, and after the recollections of mid-life are faded, 
the gay golden scenes of boyhood. The decaying mind, 
decrepit as the body, and void of all that once so much en- 
grossed its regards, but still rich in tales of " seventy years 
back," might be compared to the desolated mansion in 
which one finds — no busy inmates, indeed, and no furni- 
ture; but the walls of the saloon still clad in the tapestries 
that were the pride of the house a century ago. 

The diversities of natural talent allowed for, it is always 
those classes of men whose course of life is the most ad- 
venturous, and whose passions — whose hopes, fears, ambi- 
tion, are liable to be wrought up to the highest pitch, that 
are the most distinguished by a bold and graphic style of 
speech, whose descriptions of scenes are the most impres- 
sive, and whose epithets have the most striking appropri- 
ateness. The ordinary vocabulary of men who have sur- 
vived a thousand perils, and been the foot-balls of Fortune 
from their youth up, always abounds with picturesque 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 197 

quaintnesses of expression. Compare, in this particular, 
the snug shop-keeper who has sedately trod the streets of 
a quiet town fifty years, although by habits of reading he 
may happen to have at command the stores of the lan- 
guage, with the style of his harebrained brother or cousin 
— the mother's grief, who went abroad a boy, who has suf- 
fered a dozen shipwrecks and captivities, and has acquired 
and lost a fortune two or three times over. It is not merely 
in such a case that more things have been seen, and that 
aspects of nature more various have been contemplated ; 
but that what has been seen has been looked at when the 
mind was otherwise powerfully stimulated by hope and 
fear. 

In practice therefore, We should entirely miss our pur- 
pose if, with a view to cultivate or enrich the conceptive 
faculty, we were to direct our endeavours chiefly to the 
habit of observation. This is indeed to be cultivated, but 
at a later time, and as connected with other purposes ; for 
the power of observing accurately is modified by a definite 
result which is aimed at. Thus there is the artist's eye for 
nature, and the poet's eye, and the eye of the naturalist, or 
of the physical philosopher. And these several habits of 
the perceptive faculty differ essentially, and are in fact rare- 
ly united in the same individual. When the natural taste 
and the destination of a young person have been ascer- 
tained, then is the time for training the eye to catch that 
peculiar class of objects, or those shades of colour, and 
refinements of form, which belong to his chosen art or 
study. 

It is true, as I have just said, that the more agitating 
emotions of the mind, and its stormy passions, serve to 
give force and permanence to the conceptions ; but of 
course these are not the means which we can wish to em- 
ploy in the business of education. What is actually within 
our power, in this way, is that bright joyousness, and that 
17* 



198 HOME EDUCATION : 

vivid robust hilarity which has already been insisted upon, 
as the condition of a prosperous education. And here it is 
inevitable again to say that it is the mild, healthful, plea- 
sures of a country life, readily as they assimilate with the 
natural sentiments of childhood and youth, that will incom- 
parably the best promote the enrichment of the conceptive 
faculty, and favour impressions such as shall be at once in- 
delible, and of the most desirable class. A romantic local- 
ity possesses, in this view, a very peculiar advantage ; but, 
as a substitute for it, a real benefit will accrue — a benefit 
extending itself even to the moral sentiments, from a visit 
once and again to some of the mountainous districts of our 
island ; nor are these very remote from the flat eastern 
counties in any parallel from Southampton to Aberdeen. 
To children of active and cultured minds, already fraught 
with natural tastes, tastes formed in the country, the exhil- 
aration of such a visit will bring with it movement enough 
to insure the making an indelible impression of the grand 
and beautiful upon the imagination. 

While the beautiful or the sublime in nature is before the 
eye of young persons, we should be greatly overshooting 
the mark, and defeating our intention, were we to be read- 
ing and talking poetry with them, or labouring to work 
them up to a pitch of sentimentality. All that is want- 
ed, and the very thing that is wanted, is to allow, and 
to provide for, buoyant various enjoyments. And let not 
persons of a severe cast of mind, if any such should be 
among my readers, either frown upon, or hold in contempt, 
recommendations of the sort I am now venturing to give ; 
for we are not proposing to train up poets, or artists, or sen- 
timentalists ; but are aiming to replenish the mind with 
bright and available materials, such as shall impart to it an 
abundance of intellectual wealth, and give it breadth and 
elevation ; and by these natural means exclude whatever 
is frivolous, vulgar, selfish, or sensual; favouring at the 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 199 

same time, by the natural assimilation of kindred emotions 
the growth of the best moral sentiments. And we are 
aiming to do this at the only time when it can be done ef- 
fectively. 

Those who may be inclined to advance objections in 
this instance, might do well to consider that it is a princi- 
ple of sovereign importance and wide application in the 
culture as well of the moral sentiments as of the intellect 
— That education is not a negative process, anxiously de- 
vised for shutting out the knowledge and contact of evil ; 
but in every sense, a positive process, providing for the ex- 
clusion of evil by pre-occupying the mind and heart with 
the best materials and the best habits. Now in reference 
to the subject in hand, if we remember how much injury 
accrues often to the moral sentiments from a disordered 
state of the imagination, and if, at the same time, we as- 
sent to the principle above-named, and therefore do not 
think of guarding against the mischiefs we apprehend, 
either by rendering this faculty torpid (if that were possi- 
ble) or by depriving it of aliment and objects, we shall 
grant that no little importance attaches to the culture and 
replenishment of the conceptive faculty. I am fully con- 
vinced that this preliminary branch of a complete educa- 
tion, assiduously attended to, would go far to ensure a 
prosperous issue as well to the moral, as to the intellectual 
training. 

In illustration of this assertion, and in the prosecution of 
my immediate subject, I will refer to a very different class 
of objects embraced by the conceptive faculty, when in an 
active condition — I mean human character, and personal 
peculiarities. Children, as every one knows, have a strong 
sense of physiognomy, and this instinct, if it be rather more 
vivid than usual, and if it be left to take its own course, 
very readily, and especially in the female mind, becomes 
allied with unamiable or even malign sentiments ; and in 



200 HOME EDUCATION : 

its ripened form it constitutes an order of character remote 
from whatever is lovely and benevolent. 

Now, in any such case, instead of preaching charity in a 
formal manner (proper indeed as such instructions may be 
in their place and time) one might endeavour to put the 
keen observing instinct upon another track ; and by di- 
recting the shrewd eye to those more broad characteris- 
tics, partly comic, partly picturesque, which mark callings 
and modes of life among the laborious classes, give inno- 
cent occupation to a faculty that will be sure to find its 
objects. With the same view, and with still higher advan- 
tage, we may turn to the peculiarities of national costume 
and manners, and go on to fill the imagination, by means 
of graphic representation and description, with whatever is 
most striking in the dresses, arms, modes of life, and ge- 
neral exterior of the nations that have figured in history. 
But of this more presently. 

It is certain that, while malevolent or chilling sentiments, 
almost invariably, connect themselves with a keen sense of 
personal peculiarities, when this power of discrimination 
takes its range only within a narrow circle, as upon the in- 
dividuals of a neighbourhood ; on the contrary, bland and 
kindly feelings, and a disposition to find something good 
under every form of humanity, is the usual, if not constant 
accompaniment of the very same faculty when brought to 
bear upon the wide varieties of human nature, in all classes 
of society, in all countries, and in all times. I am not 
now called upon to account for the fact ; but a fact it is, 
that none are more indulgent toward their fellows, none as- 
similate more readily with persons and modes new to them, 
none walk about the world with a broader preparation of 
comprehensive charity, none are so free from petty jealou- 
sies and sour evil surmises, none so exempt from splenetic 
prejudices, as those who have a quick eye to catch the 
dramatic and the picturesque in human character, and 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 201 

whose imagination teems with whatever of this sort may 
be furnished by travel, and converse with the world, or by 
history and antiquarian lore.* The scrutiny of human na- 
ture on a small scale is one of the most dangerous of em- 
ployments ; but the study of it on a large scale is one of 
the safest, and the most salubrious. 

By some readers it might be thought trivial if I were to 
add that, with the important object in view of pre-occupy- 
ing the imagination with widely gathered objects, and with 
such as are the most proper for excluding those which may 
excite malign feelings, I would avail myself of the pencil, 
and of its choicest products, as the means of bringing be- 
fore the eye the world of human nature, in all its pictu- 
resque aspects. Art may thus be made to cater for the be- 
nevolent sympathies. — The picturesque seems to have the 
peculiar property of arresting the mind on its way toward 
such an analysis of motives as hardly consists with kindly 
and pleasurable feelings. 

On the principle which we have assumed — That the Con- 
ceptive faculty is the earliest developed, and the first to 
reach its maturity, and that moreover it supplies materials 
and a basis for every other mental operation, the entire 
body of studies usually taught at an early period, should be 
recast ; and instead of intermingling, as is commonly done, 
the abstruse, and the ratiocinative, and the technical por- 
tions of them, with that which is addressed to the Ideal 
faculty, I would first gather from each, just so much as 
may be presented in a descriptive form ; and by this 
means supply the mind with the greatest amount of mate- 
rials, before any exercise of an arduous kind is exacted. 
This recommendation requires to be exemplified a little in 
its details, which I will now endeavour to do. 

* The illustrious instance of Sir Walter Scotl will occur to every one's 
recollection. 



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HOME EDUCATION 



The teacher will then recollect that the mixed sciences, 
and most of the studies usually embraced in a school 
course, include three easily distinguishable portions, name- 
ly, first, the merely Technical part, which advances defi- 
nitions, explains the terms and phrases employed in the 
particular science, announces the principle of arrangement 
or classification resorted to in it, and specifies the best 
methods of proceeding, on the part of the teacher and 
learner. In the next place come the Ratiocinative part 
of the science, or those general truths and abstract princi- 
ples that have resulted from inductive or mathematical pro- 
cesses of reasoning. Lastly, though not always kept back 
till the last, come the actual facts, and the visible objects 
and phenomena that constitute the subject matter of the 
science. Thus for example, in teaching astronomy, as it 
is often taught, the learner is required, as a prelimina- 
ry, to fix in his memory the various phrases, Latin, Greek, 
and Arabic, that have been accumulated in the course of 
centuries, for expressing, not only the natural and real, but 
the artificial relations of the heavenly bodies, and their in- 
tricate movements ; and it is well if he be able, after weeks 
or months of toil, to define correctly — nodes, mutation, par- 
allax, precession, cycles, azimuth, sidereal time, aberration 
of light, and so forth. 

Then come the laws of the celestial motion, or the prin- 
ciples of the mechanism of the heavens ; that is to say, the 
philosophy of astronomy, and last, though it should be 
first, the physical and visible, or conceivable facts to which 
the whole relates : that is to say — so much as is known, 
or may be fairly conjectured, concerning the physical con- 
stitution of the sun, planets, satellites, comets, and fixed 
stars, their magnitudes, distances, and periods ; all which 
may be understood by a child of clear intellect without 
knowing a syllable of either of the other portions of the 
science — without having heard a word which is in colloqui- 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 203 

al use, or being required to attend to any abstract law. Or 
to take the instance of Botany : — we have its ponderous 
nomenclature, and its arbitrary principles of arrangement ; 
— 'then its physiological system, or laws of vegetable life ; 
and lastly — its purely graphic or descriptive part. 

Not to repeat what has been advanced in a preceding 
chapter (p. 96) I here refer to it, in relation to the usual 
methods of teaching, first, the crabbed rudiments of a 
science, and last its intelligible facts ; logical order being 
observed, where natural order ought to give law to our me- 
thods. The former does indeed demand that generals 
should precede particulars ; but the latter directs the 
teacher to reverse this artificial order. 

What is termed the Use of the Globes, and which might 
better be called the abuse of them, if we are speaking of 
early education, affords another instance of that, as I think, 
mistaken practice which, while it offends nature, actually 
shuts out intelligence from all but the most resolutely 
intellectual minds. Instead of placing before the learner, 
in the first place, the palpable, visible, and picturesque facts 
of physical astronomy, and physical geography, and which 
very few children would fail to listen to with delight ; the 
teacher, book in hand, or worse, forcing the book into the 
hands of the learner, afflicts him in some such style as this : 
— " The Colures are two great circles, imagined to inter- 
sect each other at right angles in the poles of the world : 
one of them passes through the solstitial, and the other 
through the equinoctial point of the ecliptic, whence the first 
is denominated the solstitial, and the second the equinoctial 
colure. This last determines equinoxes, and the former the 
solstices," &c. Such is the style in which mere children 
are too often introduced to the sciences, and for ever alien- 
ated from all kinds of substantial knowledge. The para- 
graph I have taken from only the sixth page of a much used 
school book, if rendered into Dutch or Chinese, would have 



204 



HOME EDUCATION : 



been not a whit less beneficial to thousands of those who, 
in their sorrowful school-days, have learned, repeated, and 
instantly afterwards forgotten it. It is not that the techni- 
cal parts of the sciences should not be learned, but that they 
should be kept out of sight until after the mind has become 
familiar with the visible realities to which they relate. 

A description of the earth, combining many topics, 
separately treated of in five or six sciences — that is to say, 
astronomy, geography, geology, hydrography, mineralogy, 
meteorology, and, to some extent, natural history, affords 
as good an opportunity as we can any where find for 
calling the Conceptive Faculty into play, and for en- 
riching it with splendid ideas. What we want, in the 
training of this faculty, is, to accustom the mind to stretch 
out from the boundary of things actually seen, and to give 
itself a sort of intellectual ubiquity, by the vigorous effort 
which realizes remote scenes as analogous to surrounding 
objects, and yet as unlike them. A child is to be tempted 
on, until he breaks over his horizon ; he is to be exercised 
and informed until he can wing his way, north or south, 
east or west, and show his teacher, in apt and vivid lan- 
guage, that his imagination has actually taken the leap, 
and has returned — from the tempest-rocked Hebrides, or 
the ice-bound northern ocean, from the red man's wilderness 
of the west, from the steppes of central Asia, from the 
teeming swamps of the Amazon, from the sirocco deserts 
of Africa, from the tufted islets of the Pacific, from 
the heaving flanks of Etna, from the marbled shores of 
Greece. 

By taking up the elements of natural scenery, as found 
in our own landscapes and climate — by the copious use of 
pictorial representations — by well-selected passages from 
the most lively of our modern travellers, and, as the master 
method, by combining the whole in a vivid, condensed, 
and even florid colloquial style — the viva voce painting that 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 205 

embodies the entire wealth of the language, as to its epi- 
thets, by these means, all the rich scenes of this, our 
planet, may be lodged in the minds of children, and so 
may become treasures of thought, imparting hereafter, 
even when least apparent, a copiousness, and a breadth, 
and a variety, to the style of speaking and of writing, on 
whatever subject. Need we compare this kind of enrich- 
ment of the Conceptive Faculty with the hard acquired 
ability to tell you. in a moment, the latitude and longitude 
of fifty towns, or the population — " according to the 
last returns, and the best authorities," of the capitals of 
Europe 1 

But besides going through the characteristic scenes of 
the four continents, as a traveller does, we must take the 
earth as a whole, or as a planet, and aid the mind in look- 
ing at it as from a point of view whence it might be seen, 
spinning on its axis, cloud-mottled, snow-tipped, with its 
bulging tide-wave, heading on daily from the equatorial 
Atlantic, to the northern straits ; with its steady mon- 
soons, and its angry tornados, its fire-spitting craters, its 
verdant and swarming patches of life, and its red arid ex- 
panses of sand. Let the mind be assisted in its efforts to 
grasp the contrasted simultaneous condition of the several 
hemispheres ; that is to say, the eastern and western, in 
their daily, and the northern and southern, in their annual 
changes. The very effort which we wish to make easy to 
the Conceptive Faculty, is that of leaping from the scene pre- 
sent before the senses, to the opposite scene, remote from 
them. The mental effect is different, and a more vigorous 
grasp of the Ideal is had, in conceiving, for example, of 
noon now scorching the plains of Asia, while we are 
shrouded by night, or of summer, now glowing in South 
Africa, while we are buried in snow, than as if our own en- 
suing night, or our own approaching summer, were thought 
of. The Conceptive Faculty takes a bolder step in 

18 



206 HOME EDUCATION : 

realizing what is remote, than what is future, even if the 
objects be substantially the same. 

In connexion with these same subjects, the teacher has 
an excellent theme before him if he be qualified to picture 
forth the successive conditions of our planet, as indicated 
by geological science : and I shall be understood as 
meaning that what, in this stage of education, he is in 
quest of, is vivid description of visible and palpable ob- 
jects ; not scientific statements, conducive to the establish- 
ment of a theory : these are to come in their time, but not 
yet ; and it is an utter error, in my opinion, to put into the 
hands of children, or even of young persons, in the first 
instance, a rudimental book, condensing the abstruse and 
ratiocinative principles of the sciences. 

From the description of the earth, it will be easy to 
make good our way outward toward the heavens. Whether 
or not children have yet heard of the signs of the zodiac, 
or know any thing of declination, equation of the centre, 
or the syzygies of the moon's orbit, they may be led on 
until they can plunge boldly into the abyss of worlds 
around us, and by the aid of the telescope, and of vivid 
descriptive discourses, hold a steady flight, from point to 
point, of the visible universe. How many who have 
learned all about the celestial globe, and can twirl it to 
admiration, or even lecture upon the orrery, yet, within 
two years after they have left school, are not only destiiute 
of taste for the sublimest of the sciences, but seem not to 
retain, if ever they have had, any mental correspondence, 
connecting the technicalities of " the globes," with the 
wonders revealed to the favoured eye of man in a cloud- 
less night : — for them, a treble tier of vapours might as 
well have wrapped this ball of ours in perpetual obscurity 
and ignorance. 

It will be far otherwise with young persons who have 
been intellectually dealt with, and who have obtained an 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTIES. 207 

ideal grasp of whatever is, or might be seen in creation. 
The peculiar circumstance, bearing upon the culture of the 
conceptive faculty, which attaches to the objects of astro- 
nomy is this, namely — That the heavenly bodies, or let us 
now confine ourselves to the planets of our own system, 
are at once, and in different senses, within the range of the 
eye, and beyond it. A remote country is purely an object 
of conception; and whether it be Jersey, or Otaheite, it 
can be present to the mind only in idea. But the moon, 
or Jupiter and his moons, with the aid of the telescope, is 
so brought before the eye, as that the mind keeps a fixed 
hold of it, while it is spoken of; and yet, as to the scenes 
which may diversify its surface, it is so remote as to de- 
mand the most vigorous effort of the conceptive faculty to 
realize them. Now this circumstance is of the highest 
significance in relation to the process of culture we are at 
present treating of. 

With the advantage of a clear atmosphere, let the eye be 
fixed upon a hill side, fifteen or twenty miles distant, and 
with which, and its objects, the spectator has already be- 
come familiarly acquainted, and able therefore to fill up, 
in all their details, the hazy outlines, and to fancy much 
more than he can discern of houses, churches, knolls, 
hedges, and rocky points. Now, in thus bringing the con- 
ceptive power to bear upon a cluster of objects, dimly seen 
it receives a partial aid, which, in a singular manner, en- 
hances the faculty itself, and uses it to a degree of pre- 
cision and vividness that confers something like ubiquity 
upon the mind, enabling it to transport itself, with the ve- 
locity of light, to any scene which it possesses the mate- 
rials for imagining. After practising the eye, and the 
mind, in this conjoined manner, upon a remote object, 
known by previous and near acquaintance, the next exer- 
cise is to direct the eye to a similarly situated eminence 
which has never been actually visited. This is a different 



208 HOME EDUCATION : 

kind of effort, and of course is more liable to vagueness of 
conception : it will however lead the mind on, if frequently 
repeated, so as shall impart still more intenseness and 
vivacity to the conceptions of things not seen. 

Now it is only an extension of this same habit or power, 
which we propose to effect in relation to the celestial 
bodies : and this sort of training, if persevered in, imparts 
a general activity and energy to the mind, which will make 
itself manifest in every other intellectual operation; for 
there is absolutely no process of thought that does not 
ground itself, more or less remotely, upon the conceptive 
faculty. 

The moon, a day or two short of the full, or as much 
past it, affords the best opportunity for this sort of exer- 
cise. The moon, let it be said, is — a mountain, only some- 
what more distant from the earth than Snowdon is from 
the Cheviots, or than the Irish coast is from Cader Idris. 
The moon, seen in her gibbous state, through a good teles- 
cope, is readily perceived to be rotund, and the mind has 
grasped its object the moment when that which had been 
thought of as a disc, is seen to be a globe. The meri- 
dional, orange-like ridges of the moon's surface aid the eye 
in this effort. Then, after a familiarizing lecture has been 
given, embracing all that is known, or well conjectured, 
concerning the physical condition, or geology of the moon, 
and drawings, in large, have been shown of its circular or 
volcanic pits, of its protruded chalky strata, so resplendent 
at certain points, and of its crescent ridges, the telescope is 
again resorted to, and the very objects are exhibited that 
have been spoken of, and represented. If the first beam 
of sunlight upon a lofty lunar crag is watched for, and the 
spreading of day adown the mountain side is seen until the 
cone join the plain whence it rises, the mind, thus aided to 
a certain extent, and then left to go on by itself, acquires — 
what we are now intending, a vigorous mental ubiquity — a 



THE CONCEPTIVK FACULTY. 209 

trajectile force, leaping the voids of the universe, and an- 
ticipating in some degree, powers not yet granted to the 
human spirit. 

A further exercise will be, with a careful regard to the 
facts of the case, and which a moderate acquaintance with 
science supplies, to carry the young spectator out to the 
moon, and to aid him, by descriptions and representations, 
in imagining the magnificent appearance of the Earth, as 
thence seen — with her visibly quick revolution, her nebu- 
lous streaks, her snowy poles, her sombre ocean expanses* 
and the blotches that mark her volcanos. This is an ex- 
ercise essentially differing from that lately spoken of, 
(p. 205,) in regard to the earth. 

The mind has advanced some way beyond its mere per- 
ceptions when it has clearly discerned the sun's globosity, 
which is a much less apparent fact than that the moon is a 
sphere. But the telescope, with its stained eye-glass, 
affords us the aid we need for this purpose, first by shear- 
ing the dazzling orb of its superfluous beams, so that it 
may be steadily looked at ; and next, by discovering the 
spots, which do this, by showing a perspective, as they ap- 
proach the verge, and by their curvilinear path across the 
disc, parallel to the sun's equator, as observed several suc- 
cessive days. By these means the sun's real figure offers 
itself, if not to the eye, yet to the mind, and a surprising 
accession of conceptive power results from so simple an 
advance as this. In truth the teacher will find, in a hun- 
dred instances, that, to embolden the conceptive faculty 
has the effect, beyond what he might have supposed, of in- 
vigorating, not this faculty alone but every other. 

The solar spots should, in like manner, be looked into, 
so as to carry the mind through the phosphorescent atmos- 
phere, or strata of fiery tempests, and land it upon the 
terra firma, beneath. To aid this operation, let a wooden 

18* 



210 HOME EDUCATION I 

ball, painted of a dark colour, be coated, first with a dis- 
tempered ochre, and afterwards with a bright yellow : then, 
with a broad wooden point, let spots of the coloured coat- 
ings be taken off, in imitation of the solar spots, then hap- 
pening to be visible. A ball thus prepared exhibits the 
actual construction of the atmospheric strata, as indicated 
by the spots, and will show the three surfaces — of the sun's 
non-luminous body — of its reflecting under stratum, and of 
its resplendent upper stratum. 

Now in all this, it is not so much the teaching of astro- 
nomy, as the invigoration and replenishment of the prime 
faculty of the mind, by the aid of astronomical facts, that 
we intend. An endeavour may be made, with this view, 
to put the mind into possession of the celestial distances ; 
or at least to impart something better than the vague notion 
of the heavens as a dome spangled with shining points. 

This may be attempted by means of a gradual extension 
of the sight from nearer to more remote objects, which are 
at known distances, one from the other, and from the spec- 
tator ; as thus : — The learner is directed, we will say, to 
look at a farm-house, and a windmill, on the nearer hori- 
zon, and three miles apart one from the other. Next, if 
the locality allows of it, let a three miles be found, marked 
by two conspicuous objects, and situated on an horizon 
twenty miles distant ; or let the same angular distance be 
carried from the nearer to the more remote horizon, and 
the actual interval be ascertained by reference to a coun- 
ty map. If, by these means, a notion has been acquired 
of the diminution of objects, or intervals, by distance, the 
question may be put — Now, can you imagine, how six 
hundred miles, measured from the Lizard Point to Pent- 
land Firth would appear, if you could bring both extremi- 
ties of the British main. at once within view? Hardly. 
Yet I will show you much more than this — I mean, a full 
two thousand miles, and rather more, stretched out before 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 211 

you ! — Where ? how ? — Look at the moon: the measure- 
ment from tip to tip of her horns, is 2100 miles. But we 
may see, at once, much greater distances than this. 
Just as the sun is setting, look from the point of the 
horizon where he disappears, to Venus, who is now at her 
greatest elongation : there then is a distance of sixty-eight 
millions of miles spread before you ! just as the three 
miles, between the farm-house and the mill, is also ex- 
tended. 

This sort of exercise is easily diversified by reference 
to the other celestial bodies : and so, by the aid of vivid 
verbal descriptions, well-constructed drawings, and the 
telescope, the minds of young persons may be used to 
the pathways of the heavens, and be made familiar with 
the scenes of wonder which strict science (fancy apart,) 
leads us to attribute to the surfaces of Jupiter and of 
Saturn ; and thence, onward, to the stellar systems. We 
thus, at once, occupy the mind with the stupendous facts 
of astronomy, before its technical elements are meddled 
with; we engage the purest tastes, and impart, by use, a 
vigour to the Conceptive Faculty, such as promotes 
general mental superiority and intellectual power. 

If a good telescope be at command, and if, by frequent 
and progressive conversations, the minds of children have 
been prepared to look at what is shown them with a grasp 
of thought, a sudden view of the Pleiades, or, if the instru- 
ment allows it, of some of the stellar nebula?, will be found 
to produce a powerful impression on their imaginations. 
And in conducting this sort of exercise, two purposes are 
to be kept in view, and to be blended ; the first is that of 
familiarizing a little the stupendous magnitudes and dis- 
tances of the visible universe ; and the other is that of 
founding, upon such familiarized conceptions, those ele- 
vated emotions which favour the religious sentiments. 
Not only are these two purposes separately important, but 



212 HofaE education: 

they are so as dependent the one upon the other ; for there 
is a vague awe connected with the starry heavens, which, 
when it comes to be supplanted by scientific notions, is 
not unlikely, as we find, unhappily, in frequent instances, 
to be superseded by a feeling absolutely irreligious. But 
so lamentable a damage to the moral sentiments should 
be precluded, if possible, by combining, from the very first, 
precise conceptions with just moral impressions. The 
atheism of Laplace is not likely to gain admittance along 
with his theories, if, before these come to be known, the 
mind has already associated its feelings of devout admira- 
tion with the substance of the facts on which those specu- 
lations are founded. 

To recur to the instance of the Pleiades ; or to some of 
the globular systems of stars : — when the telescope has 
brought before the eye, instead of a confused twinkling, as 
if of a dozen luminous points, the clear steady splendour 
of thousands and thousands again, constituting a flaming 
community of suns, within the range of which there can be no 
darkness at all, but a perpetual glory, radiating from innu- 
merable sources ; when this idea has been vividly realized, 
and when the actual remoteness of the scene has been lost 
from the recollection, some such train of thoughts as the 
following may be suggested : — Let us now imagine our- 
selves the inhabitants of one of those suns, surrounded on 
every side by ten thousand effulgent globes, and behold- 
ing, every where, so much more of life, power, and enjoy- 
ment, as may be thought to belong to such a system ; and 
let us then suppose that there were to be described to us 
some such dim region of the universe as the one we actu- 
ally occupy, where there is but a single source of light and 
heat, and this one far remote from us ; and where a half 
of all time is given to darkness and to cold : — where life 
and pleasure are diminished a half by night, and a half by 
winter ; should we not be apt to think of such a system, as 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 213 

if it were thrown beyond the boundary of the Creator's 
care, and had been excluded from the circle of his presiding 
goodness and wisdom 1 But, now, in contradiction to any 
such supposition, let us only apply the microscope to the 
minuter objects of the animal or vegetable kingdom, and 
contemplate the perfect workmanship, the high finish, and 
the wise and beneficent contrivances that so conspicuously 
belong to the very smallest, as well as to the most bulky 
classes of plants or animals. To the eye of reason, the 
divine attributes are as surely and as plainly indicated in 
the physiology of an animalcule, or a lichen, as they could 
be in the counterpoise and magnificence of a hundred thou- 
sand neighbouring suns. The proof is precisely of the same 
sort, in both instances, and the argument is as good in sub- 
stance, whencesoever it may have been derived. The gnat, 
born to die in a day, in this wintry world of ours, gives evi- 
dence of the very same qualities of the creative mind which 
are or may be evinced, by the undying energies of the beings 
of a perennial summer world. Whether he bestows more 
or less, God, the author of life, is present, and is at work, 
wherever there is life — wherever there is matter, motion, 
and form. 

The purport of the methods I am now recommending is, 
to get possession of the mind, first on the side of its con- 
ceptive powers ; and to establish vivifying associations 
between the sublime and beautiful in nature, before that 
which is merely technical, or that which is abstruse or ra- 
tiocinative, is much, if at all, thought of. The difference 
is greater between minds, equally intelligent, the one of 
which has come early into correspondence with whatever 
in the universe may be conceived of, while the other has 
conversed only, or chiefly, with the arbitrary and artificial 
aspects of things. Even in relation to technical learning, 
the terms and the theorems are much more firmly held, and 



214 HOME EDUCATION '. 

distinctly understood, when what they relate to has already 
been clearly understood in its inartificial form. 

We now go back to our starting point — this planet of 
ours, and take a turn among its organized species. And 
here again we are to make a choice, as to the method of 
proceeding. If the mere memory is the first of the facul- 
ties to be cultivated, and if then the reason is to be drily 
exercised, we may go on in the accustomed path of con- 
signing scientific rudiments, nomenclatures, definitions, 
classifications, to the encumbered brain. But we have 
supposed a different principle to have been adopted, and 
that the faculty which nature first sets in movement is the 
one which education is first to aid, and to furnish with 
materials. 

An initiation in botany and natural history, if adapted 
to the principle we now recommend, will be purely of a 
descriptive kind ; and not only descriptive in its style, but 
designedly select, instead of being systematic in its in- 
stances : as for example, a systematic method, whatever 
may be the principle of the system adopted, enjoins that 
the fixed characteristics of orders, classes, genera, species, 
should be pointed out, and that the learner, from the com- 
mencement, should be qualified to detect them, under all 
varieties of appearance ; and that specimens, in attestation 
of the principle so assumed, should be collected, irrespect- 
ively of any accidental circumstances of the species, which 
may be adapted to awaken curiosity. 

But in place of any such method, I would glean from the 
vegetable and animated orders, of all climates, whatever re- 
commends itself, the most strongly, by its fitness to fix 
itself in the imagination. Nor must we lose sight of the 
fact that the mind is much aided in its individual con- 
ceptions by the simple circumstance of the actual juxta- 
position of things, and their local concomitance. Thus, 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 215 

for example, to study natural history in its several branches 
on the principle of bringing together things which really 
meet the traveller's eye, in the same scenes, imparts far 
more of vividness to single ideas, and gives much more of 
richness to the mind in general, than is done by consider- 
ing objects nakedly and disjunctively, in their scientific re- 
lations. Thus I would paint upon the fancy, the natural 
history — vegetable, animal, and mineral, of Lapland, as a 
whole, of Siberia, as a whole, and so of Brazil, of India, of 
Africa. This method vivifies the mind, and is consonant 
with the laws of its natural development; but to discourse 
of the whale and of the ape, of man and of the kangaroo, 
as associated by an abstruse point of analogy, is a process 
proper indeed to a later era of education, but utterly impro- 
per, as I think, to its earlier stages. 

The faculties afterwards to be cultured will work with 
far more readiness, and reach results with vastly greater 
rapidity, when thus richly furnished with materials, and 
when all these materials are associated with agreeable im- 
pressions. The opposite practice, which has prevailed so 
much in education, of commencing by the rudiments of the 
sciences, is to be attributed, in part, to the prejudice, so 
besetting to limited minds, of paying more regard to logical 
order, in the conveyance of knowledge, than to the order 
of nature in opening the faculties ; and partly to the facility 
of imposing a drudgery of tasks upon the learner, as com- 
pared with the animated method which, in rendering the 
learner's task more agreeable, requires a little more effort 
to be made by the teacher. There are some who would 
rather be at the pains of carrying forward the most rigorous 
processes of instruction, than find themselves called upon 
every day, and every hour, to convey various information, 
in a vivacious manner. 

It will be easy to advance from the natural history of 
countries, to the characteristics and manners of the nations 



216 HOME EDUCATION : 

occupying them ; but on this ground we want something 
altogether unlike the dry bones — the statistics, the colour- 
less bird's eye views, usually contained in elementary 
books, intended for children. There may indeed be works 
which I have not been so fortunate as to meet with, proper 
for our purpose ; but in default of such, the teacher must 
rely upon his own knowledge of facts, and his command of 
language ; and instead of requiring children to listen to, or 
to repeat, what they will forget as soon as they can, and 
what can do them very little service while they may chance 
to remember it — as that Iceland is 'situated between the 
63d and 67th degrees of north latitude, and the 12th and 
25th degrees of west longitude ; is 280 miles in length, and 
180 in width; and that its population, according to the last 
census, is 53,000 ;' — and so forth ; instead of this, let the 
scenes, the occupations, the habiliments, of an Iceland fam- 
ily, during their few summer days, and then during their 
long wintry months, be graphically described (and with an 
admixture of humour) and aided by the best pictorial repre- 
sentations that may be at hand. Descriptions of this sort, 
illuminated by the pencil, and vivified, when the means of 
doing so are available, by poetic extracts, will never be ob- 
literated from the memory : and if this same method be 
carried forward, round the globe, the result, especially with 
children of vivacious minds, will be a general invigoration 
and enrichment of the faculties, apparent ever after in al- 
most every sentence that is written or uttered. 

Whatever might now actually be seen, could we borrow 
the wings of the morning, is the proper subject-matter of 
the earlier processes of instruction. To this succeeds, or 
the two may be attended to simultaneously — whatever 
would meet the eye, could we sail up the stream of time, 
and set foot ashore, where might be contemplated the won- 
ders of ancient Egypt, ancient India, ancient Greece, 
Rome, Judea ; and then, of the European kingdoms, at 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 217 

chosen points during the course of the middle ages. No- 
thing, altogether, so well as history, subserves the purpose 
we have now in view ; but then by history I do not intend a 
summary of the series of events — a calendar of kings and 
generals — a list of the dates of battles and treaties ; but just 
such a description of places and of persons — of modes of 
life and usages, long gone by, as we have supposed to have 
been already given of the same class of objects, now extant. 

History for children requires, from beginning to end, to 
be written anew.* Nothing is gained by condensation in 
conveying this sort of instruction : what we want is the very 
contrary, namely — amplification : but then it is not the 
amplification proper to erudite antiquarian memorials ; but 
that which, first selecting whatever is most striking in inci- 
dent or scenery, and most characteristic too of the people, 
or of the times, spreads it, in bold outline and strong co- 
lours, upon a broad canvass. The requisite means of il- 
lustration, as to costume and scenery, are now more easily 
had than at any time heretofore ; and the well-informed 
teacher may, without much preparatory labour, be in posi- 
tion to hold forth to the mind's eye the very picture of the 
principal events on which the fortunes of mankind have 
turned. 

The truth of history is always found to be a powerful 
recommendation of it, with children ; and if it be thus con- 
veyed in a vivid form to the conceptive faculty, it may su- 
persede fiction, or weaken the taste for it. Moreover, 
when history is so taught as to lodge it firmly in the ima- 
gination, it has this peculiar property, that it quickens the 
moral sentiments, and is a means of effecting an associ- 
ation, vastly important, between the moral emotions, the 
imagination, and the reason ; and this assimilation of ideas 
is effected, not by formal attempts to bring it about ; but 

* I do not overlook the ' Tales of a Grandfather.' 
19 



218 HOME EDUCATION: 

by that purely spontaneous process which goes on in the 
mind when certain scenes are presented, embodying such 
and such elements of our moral nature. 

Nothing can be much more stupifying or superfluous 
than the interlarded solemnities of moral inference which 
swell some books of history, intended for young persons. 
The well meant but futile — " Hence we should learn," and 
" how important it is ever to remember," answer no pur- 
pose whatever in education, except that of giving the conge 
to the minds of children, whether as auditors or readers : 
it is a — " now you may go, while I preach." The effica- 
cious mode of instilling moral principles, as suggested by 
the history of nations, is, at choice moments, and when all 
minds are seen to be in a state of gentle emotion, and in a 
plastic mood, to drop the word or two of practical infer- 
ence, to enounce the single, pithy, well digested sentiment, 
which, by its natural affinity with the excited feelings, at 
the moment, shall combine itself with the recollected facts. 
Nothing more perhaps need be said in reference to the 
conveyance of moral feeling or principle, than what is im- 
plied in the very word — instilled. Religion and morality, 
and especially as corroborated by history, are to be instilled, 
not administered in stifling potations, or drenches of 
wisdom. 

Along with so much continuous narrative as may serve 
to give coherence to children's ideas, there may, with ad- 
vantage (in regard to the conceptive faculty) be mingled 
what may be termed historical portraits, not indeed of indi- 
viduals, but of classes of men, and of those classes which 
have had existence through long periods of time, and which 
are rarely made to figure, in a distinct manner, on the 
pages of history. Thus we should present, in succession, 
and actually pictured, as well as verbally described — the 
Egyptian Pharaoh, and his magicians — the Persian Magi, 
and the Cyrus (the Shah of three thousand years ago) ; 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 219 

then the heroes of Homer's romances, and the real warrior 
statesmen of Athens, Sparta, Thebes, Macedon. Next, in 
solemn procession, come the Ptolemies, and the Antio- 
chus's ; along with the Jewish Pontiff, and the Rabbis. 
The consuls, the dictators, the orators, and the emperors 
of Rome, first western, and then eastern, bring up the train 
of the dramatis personam of ancient history. In more lively 
and picturesque guise, advances the troop of European 
actors, including the popes, the abbots, the monks, the 
bishops, the barons, and the Scandinavian chiefs ; the 
knight of the Crusades, and the Templar, with his compa- 
nion Saracen ; the bard and troubadour, the pilgrim, the 
bourgeois, the buccaneer ; and the more modern represen- 
tatives of each. 

No philosophizing, no continuous moralizing, no rudi- 
ments of political or economical science ; nothing but 
painting to the mind's eye, and actual painting to the bodily 
eye, should belong to this first conveyance of history. So 
conveyed, it becomes to the mind an unalienable and inex- 
haustible opulence, and when, in due time, it comes to be 
wrought upon by the severer faculties, it yields its sixty 
and hundred-fold of substantial wealth. 

I feel some embarrassment in attempting to say any 
thing on the subject of Fiction, as a means of education, 
partly on account of the real difficulties that attach to the 
question, in a practical view ; and partly in regard to the 
respectable prejudices (or perhaps well-founded fears) of 
scrupulous and religious parents. And by Fiction, in this 
place, I do not mean the fable, occupying half a page, and 
allowed by all to be innocent enough, nor the story-book, 
put into the hands of children for their diversion in a rainy 
day ; but the more elaborate form of fictitious narrative, in 
which the persons of the story are kept in sight long enough 
to generate a mental acquaintance, and to excite vivid sym- 



220 home education: 

pathies ; and in which a plot is slowly developed, so as to 
enchain curiosity, and excite powerful emotions. As to the 
brief apologues in which Reynard and Grimalkin are hero 
and heroine, or the edifying history of Master Charles 
Steady, and Miss Fanny Fretful, there need be no ques- 
tion about them : the difficulty before us relates to compo- 
sitions of a higher order, and to which children, under their 
twelfth year, or indeed at a much earlier age, will listen 
with breathless attention. I do not know that I have read 
Don Quixotte since I heard it at five years old, as one of 
an eager circle, the eldest not thirteen ; yet I retain a very 
vivid recollection of the incidents and characters, and could 
relate most of the knight's adventures. 

It is indeed found, as I have already said, that truth is a 
great recommendation of a narrative to children ; and also 
that History, graphically conveyed, may supersede the de- 
mand for fiction ; but it is also true, nor should the fact be 
concealed, that the vivid emotions excited by elaborate fic- 
tions give a stimulus to the conceptive faculty, altogether 
of a peculiar kind, and such as one is reluctant absolutely 
to exclude. 

In apology for allowing rather more indulgence in this 
way than some may think safe or wise, I would say, in the 
first place, that mere novels — love stories, whether better 
or worse, are utterly, and without exception excluded from 
my present intention. If any advantage might be derived 
from works of this stamp, the injury and the peril decisive- 
ly outweigh the possible benefit : so far I have no contro- 
versy with the most rigid exclusionist. In the second place, 
I would remind parents of the great principle, to which too 
much importance can hardly be attached, and which I will 
run the hazard of repeating once oftener than the reader 
may think necessary — That safety, in regard to the moral 
and religious sentiments of the young, is not to be insured 
by the passive method of shutting out all knowledge of, 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 221. 

and contact with evil ; but must be sought for in the con- 
veyance of positive and active principles, such as may re- 
pel evil when it is presented with powerful recommenda- 
tions. Education, let us never forget, is not a negative, 
but a positive process ; and as to the heart, what we have 
to do is more to fortify virtue, than to screen innocence. 

The question concerning the use of stimulating fictions 
must turn greatly upon the practices, the moral economy, 
and the tone of a family; that is to say, if young persons 
are in a lax moral and mental condition — if they are dealt 
with in a slovenly, variable, and infirm manner ; then, fic- 
tion will be dangerous to them, and may probably be sub- 
versive of their better tastes, and perhaps of their better 
habits. But it is otherwise with those who are soundly and 
vigorously trained in whatever is pure, just, true, and ra- 
tional. Such might, with entire safety, be allowed to read 
or hear every one of the classic fictions of modern litera- 
ture (love romances excluded.) In my own boyhood I 
heard rather more than would be embraced by this rule, 
and yet am not able, in a careful review of all the influ- 
ences that have left a trace upon my mind, to assign any 
evil consequence whatever to this source : the fictions I 
read or heard operated simply as a powerful stimulus, ad- 
dressed to the conceptive faculty. 

Telemachus, discreet youth as he is, no one would ex- 
clude : in truth this romance seldom, I think, excites any 
very lively feeling in young minds; and it is to be consid- 
ered as a history — lacking actual historic truth. Robinson 
Crusoe, again, stands exempt from reprobation, I suppose 
with all. A great merit of this unmatched book is that, 
although a sound moral feeling pervades it, the author does 
not take any high moral aim ; he is not labouring to estab- 
lish, or to enforce a particular principle, (a circumstance 
which spoils a little Sanford and Merton;) and it is very 
desirable that the serious and weighty matters of morality 
19* 



222 home education: 

should be associated always and only, with what is true 
and real. I would much rather give admittance to a now- 
religious, than to a religious fiction ; for the one is likely 
to leave momentous principles where it found them, 
while the other will probably relax, distort, or confuse them. 
De Foe, if he had deliberately aimed at the production of 
a work the most proper imaginable for supplying a mild, 
salubrious, and yet vivid excitement to the conceptive 
faculty, could have done nothing more complete than he 
has actually done, in Robinson Crusoe. The quaint sim- 
plicity of the style, the homeliness of the sentiment, the 
commonness of Robinson's sentiments, and the mediocrity 
of the character, in every sense, all these qualities of the 
narrative are precisely what we should have wished for, 
with an intention such as I have stated. Every boy sets 
his own foot, step by step, in the prints of Robinson's shoe- 
less foot ; and therefore mentally surrounds himself, as he 
goes, with the scenery and circumstance of the story. This 
work, no doubt, has so quickened the conceptive faculty, 
in hundreds and thousands of instances, as to have greatly 
vivified the European mind, and to have animated the liter- 
ature of our own, and other countries, since its universal 
dhTusion. The Arabian Nights' Entertainments, and other 
oriental tales, might come in as having an influence over 
the imagination, directly contrasted with that exercised by 
Robinson Crusoe : the one kind of fiction moving the 
mind by its tone of reality; the other by its remoteness 
from reality ; or at least from the realities of our own times 
and country. 

Miss Edgeworth's admirable fictions have a merit of a 
kind analogous to that of De Foe's, and they possess the 
recommendation too of embracing only the lower tables of 
morality, and of rarely meddling with that which fiction 
should not dare to touch. It were however to be wished 
that less prominence were given in them to mean, false, 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 223 

and malignant characters. To some children the Parent's 
Assistant would convey a poison. Gil Bias, Don Quixotte, 
and Gulliver, can only be read to young persons, on a plan 
of careful selection. Each has a peculiar power over the 
imagination, of which we may avail ourselves, with neces- 
sary discretion in the mode and quantity. Of Shakspeare 
another sort of use, hereafter to be spoken of, may be 
made ; we need not therefore encumber ourselves by any 
difficulties regarding him, at this stage of our progress. 

I have been tempted sometimes to wish that the author 
of the Waverley novels had, in the exuberance and univer- 
sality of his powers, enriched our literature by some dozen 
of Waverley novelets ; that is to say, brightly coloured, 
and authentic fictions, embodying the scenes, persons, and 
transactions of European history, in a form such as should 
lodge them boldly and indelibly, in the minds of young per- 
sons : the Tales of a Grandfather do not precisely meet 
my idea, in this view. How far, or in what instances, the 
actual romances of this great writer may safely be had 
recourse to, for these purposes, is a question I do not 
wish to grapple with. Certainly I could find no fault with 
parents who should interdict them, one and all. It may 
however be remarked that Sir Walter Scott's poetical 
romances are liable to much less suspicion than his prose ; 
for narrative in verse does not work its way nearly so deep 
into the soul as narrative in prose. The writings of 
Florian are too vapid to be of much avail in education ; 
while those of Marmontel are almost everywhere open to 
the gravest objections. After all, it is certain that, if con- 
tinuous fictions are altogether excluded, history, and its 
rich materials, properly employed, will leave little that is 
really important to be wished for. 

Those who may be disposed to banish fictitious narra- 
tives from the school-room library, are likely also to use 
their endeavours for repressing that disposition to invent 



224 HOME EDUCATION : 

and enact romance, and the petty drama, which shows 
itself in all children of vivacious tempers. For my own 
part I should always be slow to interdict any thing which 
is seen to spring 'generally, if not universally, from the spon- 
taneous development of the faculties; and I have never 
met with children of active minds who have not created for 
themselves a large portion of their daily felicity in this 
manner. It is this romancing which gives its inexhausti- 
ble charm to the baby-house, and which, in the eyes of the 
doating little mistress of the mock establishment, imparts 
life and action to the wooden, waxen, and bran-stuffed per- 
sonages that crowd the kitchen, the parlour, the draw- 
ing-room, and the chambers : all would be nothing, shorn of 
the vitalizing ideality which animates these symbols. And 
it is this same romancing, carried on out of doors, which 
animates the labours of the little fellows who, might and 
main, build the earthen fort, man it with paste-board 
Christinos, assailed, amid the thunder of pop-guns, by 
paste-board Carlists. Childhood — happy, high-toned child- 
hood, is all Ideality : Nature herself makes it so ; and it 
is a very questionable proceeding to come in, with our 
logic-born wisdom, and spoil all this sport, and say : " I 
cannot allow you to fancy what is not true and real." 
For myself, I dare not theorize at any such rate, or take so 
much upon me, as is implied in countervailing the strong 
current of the human mind. Ideality is not an accident of 
childhood, or an ill-habit, fallen into by some children ; for 
it is nothing less than the warp and the woof of the first 
years of life ; and, so far as I have observed, children defi- 
cient in ideality are either stupid, or malignant, or sensual, 
or all three together. It is also a well-known fact that the 
finest understandings, and the noblest dispositions have 
been extinguished in childhood, by the richness, force, and 
exuberance of this element of our nature. 

Sober minded and anxious parents may probably think 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 225 

that great hazards are run by indulging, so far as is now 
proposed, the conceptive faculty, and by bestowing upon 
it the culture which I am recommending. But I seriously 
believe that the dangers apprehended are really warded off, or 
superseded, rather than enhanced, by enriching the mind 
in this very respect. To preserve the purity and health of 
the imagination, we should not quash it, but occupy it with 
whatever is bright and fair. The more ideality a child 
displays, the more strenuously would I pursue the methods 
of culture hastily hinted at in this chapter ; and I would 
lodge the entire visible universe, in all its gay colours 
and graceful forms, in a mind whence especially I wished 
to exclude objects of morbid influence. 

When, it may boldly be asked, or in what instances, is 
safety to be found in neglect, or in any merely negative 
measures 1 — Surely not in the treatment of a supposed 
prurient imagination! The children of the labouring 
classes, accustomed only to the rudest modes of life, and 
inured to toil in the open air, are rarely if ever the victims 
of the mental maladies now referred to. But with those 
of delicate habits, and who pass too many of their hours in 
warm rooms, the instances are not rare in which serious 
evils, affecting the moral habits and future conduct, are to 
be guarded against. Now these are the very cases in which 
the conceptive faculty should, as I think, be the object of 
particular attention; and in such instances it will clearly 
be advisable, while what is the most exciting — that is to 
say actual fiction, or romance, is kept out of view, to bring 
forward, in its room, the brightest realities of nature and 
history. Especially if a taste for natural history can be 
formed — animal and vegetable, with the delightful concom- 
itants of the practice of drawing, and of the busy engage- 
ments of preparing and enriching the hortus siccus, and 
the museum of specimens, with its shells, butterflies, sea- 
weeds, and what not — if this can be done, the dangers we 



226 HOME EDUCATION : 

fear are not unlikely to be averted ; for it is a rule that the 
most efficacious antidotes are those prepared from ele- 
ments homogeneous with the malady that is to be cured. 

But in relation to the bearing of the conceptive faculty 
upon the moral condition of the mind, it may be observed 
that some dangers are excluded, and a healthful activity of 
the mind is likely to be secured simply by bestowing pro- 
per attention upon the alliance of the imagination with lan- 
guage — That is to say, in bringing it about that words are al- 
ways closely attached to ideas; or conversely, that every idea 
shall have its accredited term. The establishment of this 
connexion, besides its importance in relation to the intellect 
merely, is the natural means for preventing vague and de- 
bilitating involutions of the imagination upon itself. Let 
moral and religious means of discipline be assiduously em- 
ployed for the preservation of the mind's sanity and sim- 
plicity: meantime the experienced observer of human 
nature, who looks to the working of the faculties one upon 
another, will not fail to put in movement those springs of 
action which are likely to carry the mind sheer over the 
quagmires of corruption, with unconscious velocity. 

There is another, and a most important office of the con- 
ceptive faculty, of which I have not yet spoken ; but which 
is so intimately connected with moral treatment, that it 
would be extremely difficult to give it the consideration it 
demands without forestalling much of what should be said 
in treating those subjects. What I now refer to is that 
power of the mind which enables us to realize, or to re- 
peat, in our own bosoms, the emotions and moral con- 
sciousness of others ; and so to put ourselves, mentally, 
into their position, as to take up their sufferings or their 
joys as our own. 

It is upon this sympathetic power that the moral system 
hinges : it is the conceptive faculty, employed upon the 
affections and emotions of the human bosom instead of the 



THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY. 227 

qualities of the external world, and set at work, in each in- 
stance, by our witnessing or hearing described certain 
events or circumstances, affecting others, which, by a re- 
ference to our own feelings, we can readily imagine as 
they would affect ourselves. Hence arise those various 
and potent emotions of sympathy which impel us to acts of 
benevolence, and which are the springs of conduct in 
almost the entire circle of our social relations. 

A vivid conceptive power, in relation to the sufferings of 
others, is the prime element of the philanthropic character. 
Often enough we may meet with those whose feelings are 
humane, and who will act generously, if only, by the aid of 
some unusual circumstances, one can get them to realize 
mentally, the woes and wants of the wretched; but the con- 
ceptive faculty is itself so torpid, with such persons, that, or- 
dinarily, no heed is taken of what others may be feeling. 
Selfishness is sometimes a deliberate and odious prefer- 
ence of the individual well-being to that of others : often it 
is only, as to its cause, a torpid or callous imagination. 
The Howard, is the man whose imagination puts him into 
the very place of the unhappy, and who labours to relieve 
the distress he knows of, as if it were actually pressing on 
himself. It is, moreover, a modification of the conceptive 
power which generates that nice and sensitive regard to 
the feelings of others which distinguishes the well-bred 
man ; and it is the want of this species of Ideality that 
makes the low-bred man an annoyance in society. It is in 
great degree because the conceptive faculty much more 
readily repeats to itself the feelings of those who are 
always about us, than of strangers, that the vivacity of the 
parental sympathies so vastly exceeds, in most cases, the 
measure of general benevolence, in the same persons. 

A hundred familiar illustrations of this principle of hu- 
man nature might readily be adduced, and some such will 
no doubt occur to the reader's own recollection. It would 



228 HOME EDUCATION: 

however be impracticable to enter upon the subject with any 
advantage, apart from what belongs to Moral and Religious 
education ; and rather than injure so momentous a theme 
by a hasty and incidental treatment of it, I omit, or post- 
pone, much that might have been included, as bearing upon 
intellectual culture. It is to be presumed however, that no 
parent or teacher — at home, will lose sight of so main a 
part of the business of education, or fail to avail them- 
selves of all proper occasions for cherishing a faculty in 
default of which active virtue can hardly exist. The minds 
of young persons had better be left void of every thing, 
rather than be destitute of the power and habit of trans- 
ferring the consciousness of other minds to their own. 



CHAPTER X. 

CULTURE OF THE CONCEPTIVE FACULTY IN CONNEXION" 
"WITH LANGUAGE. 

While months and years are consumed in stocking the 
memory — often to be dismissed from it immediately after- 
wards, with whatever is the most recondite, and the least 
available, in the learned languages, too little attention is 
given, if any at all, to Language — considered as the engine 
of the mind's operations, as the record of its stores, and as 
the index to whatever is cognizable by the external or in- 
ternal senses. 

But it is in these latter respects, beyond any others, that 
the study of language may be made a gainful one, affording 
also much agreeable excitement, and tending directly to 
augment intellectual power. In the same time that is 
occupied with the bootless labour of teaching common 
minded boys to construct pentameters,* what might not 
be done toward giving the mind a command of itself, and 
of its stores, by the study of language, as the instrument 

* I would not be misunderstood: — Let the refined portion of classical 
learning be cultivated with all zeal after the mind has received the more im- 
portant elements of its education ; and by those too, whose natural tastes are 
such as assimilate with studies of this kind. What I would denounce (or at 
least exclude from the scheme and practice of Home Education) is — the put- 
ting the refinements of classical learning in the place of rational culture ; — the 
too early introduction of them, and the imposition of them at all, upon ordinary 
minds. 

20 



230 HOME EDUCATION : 

of thought, and as the record of the myriad elements of our 
consciousness ! 

So far as the narrow limits to which I am restricted will 
allow, I propose to suggest hints for conducting the study 
of language on the principle here adverted to ; and it must 
be remembered that there is, in the first place — a study of 
language, as related to the Conceptive Faculty : then 
another, as related to the power of abstraction 5 and again 
another, or at least a modification of the preceding, as 
connected with the art and science of Reasoning, in its 
several kinds ; to which may be added, the more ordinary 
study of it, with a view to philology and literature. 

In treating of Language, as related to the Conceptive 
Faculty, we have to do with the descriptive portion of it 
only ; or those words, whether verbs, adverbs, adjectives, 
or substantives, which signify such properties and accidents 
of things as are cognizable by the senses. And here, 
that we may not, in the first instance, embrace too wide a 
field, we exclude, or remand for the present, whatever be- 
longs to the interior perceptions, or sympathies, and to the 
moral sentiments. — Let us suppose, that we know of 
nothing but what is visible, tangible, audible, sapid, or 
odoriferous. Tt will be easy to extend the explication of 
our principle to the more recondite class of objects. 

Two methods, then, are before us, when we have it in 
view to extend and confirm the connexion between Lan- 
guage and the Conceptive Faculty ; and the first of these 
is the one which naturally comes into use, while pursuing 
that course of descriptive instruction which has been 
roughly sketched in the preceding chapter. The teacher, 
whether the actual objects he is speaking of are before the 
eye, or are graphically represented, or are merely em- 
bodied in language, and realized in the fancy, will remem- 
ber, that it should be his aim, not only to convey a clear 
and vivid notion of those objects, and which he might 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 231 

effect, perhaps, by a few well-chosen words ; but also 
to establish a connexion, in the minds of his pupils, be- 
tween these objects and the entire compass of descriptive 
terms that might be associated with them, in the way either 
of resemblance, contrast, or negation. For an example, 
and a better one does not immediately occur to me, we 
may take Southey's ingenious accumulation of descriptive 
participles, in the well-known verses entitled, " How does 
the water come down at Lodore ?" 

Now, with the aid of a view of the Fall, a very few sen- 
tences might suffice to convey a general idea of the scene 
as it affects the eye and the ear ; and this would be quite 
enough if we intended nothing' further than to lodge the 
image and its accompaniments, in the mind ; and if any 
natural water-fall has actually been seen by the learner, 
then a condensed description, graphically characteristic, is 
the best mode of conveying an idea of any other cata- 
ract. If the Falls of the Clyde, and the Fall of Lodore, 
have been visited, then a few words may be better than 
many, for describing Montmorency, Rinkanfos, or Ni- 
agara. 

But after as much has been said as just satisfies the 
Conceptive Faculty, in its efforts to realize the scene, and 
what approves itself to good taste, as to the choice and 
collocation of epithets, then occasion may be taken (lei- 
surely, and at different times,) to assemble around this 
scene, every other term in the language we can think of, 
which, by right of affinity, analogy, or opposition, might 
fairly claim a place in a description of it. Now this is done 
pretty nearly in the often repeated verses, above referred 
to ; for, about a hundred and fifty participles are strung 
together, in these jingling stanzas, and there are scarcely 
three of them that can well be objected to as wholly im- 
proper to the subject, or as violently twisted from their or- 
dinary import. And so it appears that the impressions on 



232 HOME EDUCATION : 

two only of the senses — sight and hearing, made by the 
precipitous descent of a body of water, are reducible to 
a hundred and fifty, or more, distinguishable elements, 
each of which, as denoted by an appropriated term, holds 
a place in the mind, and may be thought of by itself But 
then to these hundred and fifty terms might be added, in 
the way of opposition, contrast, or negotiation, nearly as 
many more. Indeed as the descriptive words, assembled in 
these verses, relate principally to motion and sound, the 
number might be greatly increased by adding those which 
convey ideas of colour, light, and shade, and form. 

A good exercise, with the view of assembling the con- 
trasted terms, might be found in describingthe sullen majes- 
ty of the Ganges, in its course through the jungled swamps 
of Bengal ; and the materials for such descriptions are at 
hand in every library. But it should be remembered that, 
whereas, in geographical descriptions, such as those recom- 
mended in the last chapter, the precise intention is merely 
to bring the scene vividly before the mind, in the most 
concise and appropriate terms, the intention in the present 
case is, to accumulate, or may I say, to conglomerate, 
words and phrases, so as to familiarize the mind with the 
copia verboram, as related to any particular aspect or acci- 
dent of visible nature. It is another and a later work, so to 
instil the principles of good taste, as shall serve to reduce, 
within due bounds, a too florid or exuberant style. A 
chaste style is not to be obtained by stinting the mind in its 
materials, or by chilling the fancy ; but by training it to 
command its conceptions, and to husband its resources. 
What we are noAV about is the process of accumulation, 
apart from which the maxims of severe taste apply to 
nothing that is positive, and are brought in to regulate 
— inanity. 

It cannot be necessary to specify the many objects and 
scenes of nature which may be made use of in furnishing 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 



233 



the sort of exercise now contemplated. If any of those de- 
scriptions of volcanos, stalactite caverns, mountain passes, 
forests, deserts, and oceans, which are at hand in all mo 
dern compilations, intended for young persons, are as- 
sumed as the material of the exercise ; then the learner 
may exhibit his ingenuity (when of an age to make the at- 
tempt) in re-writing a given description, substituting, 
wherever it can be done with propriety, other terms for 
those which he finds before him. Let him follow his ori- 
ginal, step by step, sentence by sentence, word by word ; 
replacing each by an equivalent, or by two or three, equi- 
valent to the one ; or by one, condensing the power of two 
or three. It may seem superfluous to exemplify so easy a 
process ; but I will give an instance, taken at hazard, from 
a description of a night on the Grands Mulets. 



It was a brilliant night. Beneath a The night was resplendent. The 

dark and cloudless vault, the snowy mountain, clad in spotless white, 

mantle of the mountain shone re- glistened against the deep blue of 

splendent with the beams of a full the sky in the light of the moon, then 

Italian moon. The guides lay buried at the full, and such as it is seen in 



in the deepest sleep. Thus in the 
midnight hour, at the height of ten 
thousand feet, I stood alone, my rest- 
ing-place a pinnacle of rock that tow- 
ered darkly above the frozen wilder- 
ness from which it isolated rose. 
Below me, the yawning clefts and up- 
roarious desolation of the glacier pre- 
sented an appalling picture of dan- 
gers scarcely gone by. Around and 
above was a sea of fair and treacher- 



Italy. The guides were in the pro- 
foundest slumber ; and I stood soli- 
tary, at an elevation of ten thousand 
feet, keeping the midnight watch, on 
a rocky turret, rearing itself gloomily 
out of the icy desert around. Be- 
neath my feet lay the gaping chasms, 
and wild solitudes of the glacier, re- 
minding me of the frightful perils we 
had just escaped. On all sides, and 
about the upper path we had yet to 



ous snow, whose hidden perils yet lay tread, was outspread a fallacious ex- 

before us. I saw the chain of Jura, panseofsnow. I discerned the ridge 

and the distant top of many an un- of Jura, and many a remote summit 

known alp — an earnest of the pros- of nameless alpine tops — pledges of 

pect from still more lofty regions, the view we should command from 

Yet among them Mont Buet's white more elevated spots. Among these, 

dome, a warning monument of Es- the snowy arch of Mont Buet seemed, 

chen's fate, forbade the attempt to go in recalling the fate of Eschen, to 

up higher. The vale of Chamonix prohibit our ascent. The valley of 

20* 



234 



HOME EDUCATION : 



slept at the mountain's foot, and, 
now and then broken by the deep 
thunder of an avalanche, the pro- 
foundest silence reigned. It seemed 
the vastest, wildest, sternest of na- 
ture's prodigies, reposing ; — now 
starting as in a fitful dream, then 
sinking again into the stillest calm. 
The influence upon my mind of that 
poetic vision of the night I must 
despair of ever being able to com- 
municate to others, and yet the 
Ecene itself lives, a picture in my 
memory, standing alone, unalterable 
by time ... It was past four o'clock. 
Orion shone where the full, and now 
setting moon, had beamed three hours 
before. Soon the mountain top be- 
came a pyramid of gold ; the delight- 
ful token that the rising sun, between 
which and us the mountain inter- 
vened, had redeemed the pledge 
given by his departing rays. 



Chamonix lay tranquilly at the base 
of the mountain ; while, except as in- 
terrupted from time to time by the 
sullen roar of a falling avalanche, an 
absolute silence prevailed. The 
scene offered to the admiring and as- 
tounded eye, in solemn stillness, the 
most stupendous, disordered, and 
severely grand of the spectacles which 
nature anywhere presents. At one 
moment seeming to rush anew upon 
the bewildered senses, and in the 
next, subsiding into motionless re- 
pose. I can never hope to convey to 
another mind the effect produced upon 
my own by that night of dream-like 
wonders ; and yet the images them- 
selves are present to my fancy, as if 
never to fade or be impaired. . . . 
It was past four o'clock, and now 
Orion kept the place where, three 
hours ago, the moon shed her beams. 
Presently the summit of the mountain 
glowed in golden splendour, and filled 
us with the pleasurable assurance 
that the sun, hidden from us by the 
intervening height, had returned to 
realize the hope with which we had 
watched his decline. 



It would be no very difficult task to furnish a second, 
and a third version of some such descriptive passage ; even 
without allowing the structure of the sentences and para- 
graphs to be lost sight of; for our immediate purpose 
would not be secured if nothing were done but compose, 
ad libitum, another description of the same scene. 

The teacher may make a commencement with single 
sentences, descriptive of the most familia; objects, and he 
will not fail to find that the practice, if continued at inter- 
vals, and not sternly enforced, enlarges, in a pleasurable 
manner, the learner's acquaintance with, and power over 
language, while it brings the conceptive faculty into a well 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 235 

defined alliance with the most significant terms. There 
is, in such a process, a double, and an intimately blended 
training of the mind, the effect of which is in an equal de- 
gree to enrich, and to empower it. The practice of trans- 
lation from another language, when the time comes for at- 
tempting it, and if passages are selected with judgment, 
may be resorted to with the best effect, as related to our 
immediate purpose. The learner, when qualified to do so, 
should take a floridly descriptive passage, such as may be 
found in Buffbn, or Fenelon, and render it into English, in 
two versions ; then into Latin ; and if not proficient enough 
in Greek to carry the same passage forward into that lan- 
guage, our purpose, in some good measure, will be secured 
by his merely looking out the epithets — adjectives and 
verbs, which would be best embodied in such a translation. 
I well know that the teacher of language whose habits 
of mind fix his attention upon grammatical and synthetical 
proficiency, and who feels as if Horace himself were to re- 
vise every exercise, will distaste methods such as those 
which I venture to recommend ; decrying them as imper- 
tinent, or as likely to withdraw the learner's regards from 
the momentous matters of syntax and quantity. Be it so : 
I am intent upon the invigoration of the elementary facul- 
ties of the mind ; and with this view, holding in abeyance 
the objections of scrupulous scholarship, avail myself of 
such means as seem adapted to my purpose — a purpose I 
humbly deem important. And in this place I must express 
the opinion that, in teaching languages, the process would 
be greatly facilitated by confining the learner's attention, 
in the first instance, or so far as could conveniently be 
done, to the descriptive portion of each ; this being the 
class of words most readily taken up by the mind. I grant 
however that a method of this sort demands some prepara- 
tions to be made for carrying it into effect, in the way both 



236 home education: 

of newly arranged vocabularies, and new selections of 
readings. 

With a description of some impressive scene, in a lively 
and natural style, as the nucleus of the exercise, four or 
five languages may be familiarized, at one and the same 
time, and without implying any more effort, on the part of 
the learner, than is required in the study of a single lan- 
guage. On the contrary, I believe that the mind is aided 
and lightened, rather than oppressed, by the conveyance* 
in conjunction, of several sets of words and idioms. But 
then the entire system of teaching must be natural and col- 
loquial, not scholastic or abstruse. The modern European 
tongues (at least) may, with great ease, be thus taught in 
conjunction ; and so many are the points of agreement 
among them, that the points of difference give rise to little 
difficulty : and it is evident that, when four or five lan- 
guages, placed, as we may say, in parallel columns, are 
compared, the general impression made upon the learner's 
mind by the analogies, or identical forms, in a view of the 
four or five, in conjunction, will be so strong as to aid him 
much in rendering himself master of the peculiarities of 
each. The English language, claiming cousinship as it 
does, on both sides, with the northern and with the south- 
ern tongues, opens the way to the acquirement of any one 
of either class. Especially is this true (after Greek and 
Latin have been acquired) in relation to French, Italian, 
Spanish, and Portuguese, which in fact may more readily 
be taught and learned as so many dialects of the same 
stock, than separately and consecutively. 

Thus far we have spoken of that correspondence between 
the conceptive faculty and Language which is promoted, in 
an inartificial manner, by the mere use of its descriptive 
portion, while it is employed for enriching the mind with 
ideas of the various scenes and single objects of the visible 
world. And if this process be pursued in the two modes 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 237 

above mentioned, that is to say, first, in the way of well 
selected and concise descriptions, and secondly, in that of 
the accumulation of kindred terms, we shall go near to 
comprehend the entire vocabulary of the language, as re- 
lated to the objects of sense. 

But there remains a process of another sort, and of the 
highest utility, as well in relation to that command of lan- 
guage which we wish to insure, as to the enrichment of the 
conceptive faculty. To explain what I now mean I must 
remind the reader that the vocabulary of words (whatever 
may be their grammatical form, and which is accidental 
merely — whether substantives, adjectives, verbs, partici- 
ples, adverbs) relating to the visible appearances and sen- 
sible properties of the external world, is, if we speak of it 
in a mass — a Record of general facts, cognizable by the 
human mind, through the senses. And whereas no one 
human mind, however nice in its perceptions, or exact and 
excursive in its habits of observation, ever takes account 
of more than a portion, and probably a very small portion, 
of the sensible qualities and shades of difference which are 
actually cognizable by man, a copious and refined language, 
such for example as our own, contains the recorded notices 
of thousands of minds, and of minds of all classes, and of 
all degrees of precision. 

Thus for example : if the most frequently used words, 
or epithets, of a language are taken as representing the 
broad perceptions of the mass of mankind, and as sufficient 
for all ordinary purposes of description and narration, there 
yet remain, in reserve, several sets of terms, representing 
the more exact, or more penetrating perceptions of minds 
whose faculties have been exercised and sharpened by pe- 
culiar pursuits, or by the habit of admitting intense sensa- 
tions. One such set comprises those descriptive words 
that find a place only in poetry, and which are nothing else 



238 



HOME EDUCATION : 



but expressions of the highly refined perceptions of the 
most gifted and sensitive minds : and these very percep- 
tions, unheeded by the generality of men, are, through the 
medium of the terms employed to convey them, brought 
within the range of all — are forced upon the notice of all. 

It is as when two persons, very unequally gifted as to 
their powers of observation, are travelling together ; for 
the more observant of the two is every moment jogging the 
elbow of his obtuse companion, and directing his eye, on 
the right and the left, to many forms of beauty which, by 
himself, he would have disregarded. 

And thus again, there is another set of descriptive terms, 
expressing those partial, and yet very nice perceptions 
which result from the avocations and mechanical employ- 
ments of different classes of men. These technical words 
(and the amount of them is very great, and their signifi- 
cance very remarkable) although they may not ordinarily 
be available in writing or discourse, are worthy of atten- 
tion when considered as records, or notations, of the sen- 
sible qualities of things. We might take, for an example, 
the description of the sea and sky in a storm, which would 
be given by a landsman, of ordinary sensibility, and ordi- 
nary acquaintance with language ; and which would well 
enough convey a general idea of the scene, in its broader 
features. But next, let us ask the poet, whose eye has a 
peculiar regard to the sublime and beautiful, and whose 
vocabulary contains a far more extensive assortment of 
terms, to take up the same theme ; and we shall find that 
he not merely associates many fine sentiments with the na- 
tural objects before him, but that he has observed and noted 
many circumstances of the scene that had altogether escap- 
ed the vulgar eye : — in fact he has seen, what the other saw 
not. Yet this is not enough ; for we must next call in the 
painter— the marine painter, and if he possess a tolerable 
command of language— the technical language of his art. 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 239 

we shall immediately feel that he too has noted a hundred 
nice shades and aspects of the scene, which not even the poet 
had discerned. Yet every such technical descriptive phrase 
notes a real circumstance of a stormy ocean and sky; and 
each is a circumstance which, after it has once been point- 
ed out to us, we shall ourselves be able, another time, to 
catch, and which we should regret not to have had the 
power of observing. 

We have not however yet done ; for if we go astern, and 
enter into talk with the old mariner who holds the helm, 
and get him freely to employ his slang terms in describing a 
gale of wind, we shall again be met, not merely by a new 
set of words, but by a new class of observations, so pecu- 
liar as not to have been regarded either by the poet or the 
painter. One step more will lead us as far as we need go 
in this illustration. Let us then turn to the naturalist, or 
the man of science, who having acquired those habits of re- 
fined observation that are requisite in pursuing the exact 
methods of modern science, sees and notes, in the agitated 
sea and atmosphere, many evanescent indications of the 
meteorological, the chemical, and the electric changes that 
are going on, and which had wholly escaped every eye but 
his own ; and these more recondite phenomena he consigns 
to a technical phraseology, peculiar to science. 

And now, if we take the entire compass of phrases em- 
ployed by — the common observer — the poet — the marine 
painter — the old sailor, and the man of science, and ex- 
punge the few which may be strictly synonymous, or un- 
distin^uishable in sense ; the copious collection will then 
constitute a vocabulary corresponding with all the appear- 
ances that are cognizable by the human eye, during a sea 
storm. The set of phrases employed by the first observer 
embraces only the most obtrusive features of the scene ; 
those introduced by the second, have the effect of extend- 
ing and refining our conceptions on all sides ; and thus in 



240 HOME EDUCATION : 

succession, a third, a fourth, and a fifth pair of eyes, is lent 
to us, and by the aid of each, and through the intervention 
of language, we are made mentally the spectators of the 
scene, five times over, and until nothing scarcely remains 
unnoted or unthought of. 

Now it is manifest that, whoever, by the simple and easy 
means of collecting, and making himself thoroughly ac- 
quainted with the meaning of the entire body of descrip- 
tive terms, as severally employed by different classes of 
observers, not only enlarges his knowledge of language (a 
secondary yet important object) but brings himself into a 
point of view whence every nice variety of the external 
world may be distinctly noted, or vividly conceived of. To 
learn the meaning of all descriptive terms, whether com- 
mon, technical, poetic, or scientific, is to furnish the mind 
with a museum of specimens, containing whatever the 
most practised eyes have described on the face of the ma- 
terial universe. 

Yet this is but a portion of the benefit accruing from 
an extended acquaintance with descriptive vocabularies ; 
for, as any one knows, words are at once our guides and 
our goads in seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling, 
with discrimination. Words are the stimulants of percep- 
tion, and the indicators of the less obtrusive class of sensi- 
ble facts. There are many thousand appearances in na- 
ture — there are innumerable varieties of figure, motion, 
colour, texture, which would never arrest the eye, and of 
which we should take no sort of cognizance, if we had 
not first come to the knowledge of the word which notes 
the particular phenomenon, and thence been led to look for 
its archetype in nature. 

The hearing of a new descriptive term, with its mean- 
ing, is like the — " see there," addressed by the quick- 
sighted and well-informed to the dull, when the two are 
taking their turn through a museum. It is thus that the 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 241 

reading of poetry opens the eyes to a new world of pheno- 
mena, obvious indeed, but not actually observed until we 
receive this sort of aid. An appropriate instance in illus- 
tration of my meaning, may be found in the set of phrases 
employed by medical practitioners for characterizing the 
variations of the Pulse : for this example shows how very 
much the exactness of our perceptions depends upon the 
mental aid we receive from the use of distinctive terms. 
An unprofessional finger, how fine soever may be its sense 
of touch, does not usually discriminate more than four or 
five varieties of beat, at the wrist ; and we are content to 
say that the pulse is — quick or slow — hard or soft — strong 
or weak. But the varieties noted by the physician, and re- 
tained in his recollection by the use of distinctive epithets, 
amount to as many as two and twenty. As for instance, 
the pulse is said to be either — frequent, slow, intermittent! 
equal, regular, or of varying force : or it is — full, long, la- 
bouring, bounding, feeble : or it is — hard, sharp, strong : 
or it is — wiry, weak, soft, yielding : or it is — quick, or tar- 
dy : or it is — large, or small. Now by the mere aid of 
this set of phrases, fixed in the memory, an unprofessional 
hand might be trained, with a little practice, to feel and to 
distinguish all these varieties. Descriptive words, then, and 
especially technical terms, might justly be called the anten- 
na of perception: it is by these that we feel our way to- 
ward nicer, and still more nice sensations. 

Or let any one give a few days' attention to a botanical 
glossary, storing his memory, pretty well, with those phrases 
which have been constructed for the purpose of noting 
what common eyes do not discriminate, in the forms and 
colours of the vegetable world. The mere possession of 
these words enables him to see what, without them, he 
would never have noticed. We now put out of view the 
regularly conducted and scientific study of botany, and 
borrow an illustration from it, with the single intention of 
21 



242 home education: 

showing how the mere acquirement of descriptive phrases, 
understood in their etymology, and their actual or techni- 
cal application, opens the eyes, and leads the way to an 
extended and precise observation of nature. - These same 
terms then, so employed to fix the attention upon particu- 
lar phenomena, thenceforward discharge a higher function 
in regard to the conceptive faculty, serving to bring before 
the mind — not vague impressions merely of the more ob- 
trusive features of nature, but all the varied richness of 
her garb, and with the utmost exactness. For example : — 

We will suppose the case of a person not as yet syste- 
matically conversant with botany, but who makes himself 
acquainted with such phrases as the following, employed 
to express the varieties of vegetable surface. And it is 
presumed that he possesses just so much acquaintance 
with Latin as is requisite for understanding such of these 
terms as are derived from that language. 

Vegetable surfaces then are said to be — 



Rugose, as the leaves of sage. 

Netted (reticulated) or covered with intersecting and raised lines, as the 
seeds of geranium. 

Half-netted ; when, in several layers, the outer one only is reticulated. 

Pitted ; having numerous small shallow depressions. 

Lacunose ; having numerous, large, and deep depressions, or excavations. 

Honey-combed ; excavated in the manner of a honey-comb, as the recep- 
tacle of the poppy-seeds. 

Areolate ; divided into irregular angular spaces. 

Scarred ; marked by the scars left by what has faded and fallen off. 

Ringed ; surrounded by elevated or depressed bands. 

Striated ; marked by longitudinal lines. 

Furrowed ; marked by longitudinal channels. 

Aciculated ; marked with very fine irregular streaks. 

Dotted ; covered with minute impressions, as if made by the point of a pin. 



Or, to take those characteristics of the surface which 
relate to appendages, thereto attached. Vegetable sur- 
faces are — 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 243 

Unarmed; destitute of spines or prickles. 

Spiny ; furnished with spines. 

Prickly ; furnished with prickles. 

Bristly ; covered with rigid hairs, or straight prickles. 

Muricated ; covered with hard short excrescences. 

Spicuxate ; having line, fleshy, erect points. 

Rough ; covered with rigid short points. 

Tctbercled ; covered as with warts. 

Pimpled ; covered with smaller tubercles. 

Hairy ; covered with weak thin hairs. 

Downy ; with dense short soft hairs. 

Hoary ; hairy, and so dense as to whiten the surface. 

Shaggy; having long weak hairs. 

Tomentose ; covered with dense rigid hairs. 

Velvety ; the same, more dense. 

Woolly ; covered with long, dense, curled, and matted hairs. 

Floccose ; having tufts of dense hair. 

Bearded ; with tufts of long hairs, growing on different parts of the surface. 

Silky ; covered with fine, close pressed, hairs. 

Cobwebbed ; covered with loose, white, thin, entangled hairs. 

Ciliated ; with hairs like the eye-lashes, at the margin of a leaf. 

Fringed ; the margin set with thread-like processes, thicker than hairs. 

Feathery ; having long hairs, which are themselves hairy.* 

Or we might confine ourselves to the last fourteen 
terms, which express the varied appearances of hairy vege- 
table surfaces. Now without the aid of this collocation 
and comparison of phrases, an eye, only in an ordinary 
degree observant, would perhaps never have noticed more 
than three or four of these varieties ; and that only in a 
vague manner, and so as that the distinctive terms might 
have been used interchangeably and improperly ; or as if 
equivalent one to the other. But when once the fourteen 
words have been consigned to the memory, in connexion, 
and after some specimens of each kind have been examin- 
ed, then, in every ramble by the hedge-side, fourteen dis- 
tinguishable forms, instead of three or four, will be looked 
for ; and furthermore, by the aid of these distinctive 
terms, the mind exercises a command over the images of 

* See Lindley's Introduction to Botany. 



244 HOME EDUCATION : 

the various forms so distinguished. Deprived of the 
assistance of language, very few minds (probably none) 
could retain and recall, with any degree of precision, any 
large assortment of forms, shades, tints, kinds of move- 
ment, and modes of action. But with this assistance, the 
all but innumerable phenomena of the material universe, 
at rest and in motion, as they come under the cognizance 
of the several senses, singly or in conjunction, are not 
only treasured up in the mind, but are held at beck and 
call, so as to be available in whatever way they may pro- 
mote the operations of the higher faculties. 

The acquisition of the entire compass, or universal 
vocabulary of descriptive words, in our own language, I 
therefore consider as the chief preliminary work of a com- 
plete intellectual education. This labour thoroughly 
achieved, the mind is placed in a position (according to the 
rate of its original powers) whence it may advance, with 
ease and success, in any direction it may choose. Nor is 
the labour implied in making such an acquisition by any 
means severe or repulsive ; indeed it may be so conducted 
as to be effected with scarcely any conscious effort. 

It is by the means of classification, that we must abbre- 
viate our toils in this department of study; and in truth, 
wonders may be effected by this simple device. If nothing 
more were aimed at than to give the learner a liberal ac- 
quaintance with the language of elegant conversation, and 
of books, we might leave out of view for the present, the 
whole mass of technical and scientific terms ; and might 
then rely upon the insensible operation of general mental 
culture for conveying so much knowledge of words as is 
requisite for taking a part in refined conversation, or for 
relishing literature. But we have in view something beyond 
this — namely, the culture of the Conceptive Faculty, and 
for securing this further end, it is necessary to include 
every species of descriptive language, whether technical or 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 245 

scientific ; nor should we stop until the mind has been put 
in communication, by the means of words — ordinary and 
extraordinary, with every minute characteristic of the ma- 
terial world. 

A classification of terms, fulfilling this intention, must 
therefore be a little complex — that is to say, in each divi- 
sion of descriptive words, there must be separately ad- 
duced, 1st, all terms in colloquial use ; 2d, the terms of 
the poetic style ; 3d, words belonging to tec' nica hand 
4th, to scientific vocabularies. But to present to the 
reader, even the heads of any such classification would 
trespass very far upon the limits of this volume ; and in- 
stead of occupying space with an abstract of what could be 
of little utility, unless exhibited in all its details, I will offer 
an example or two of the method in which the learner may 
be exercised, in the useful practice of assembling, and of 
sorting, descriptive words and phrases, for himself. These 
exercises, easily devised by the teacher, are of two kinds, 
the first of which may be called the Concrete method, and 
the second the Abstract. 

By the concrete method, I mean, the adducing epi- 
thets, in as great number and variety as possible, which 
are attributable to any given subject ; such as — the ocean 
— a river — a sandy desert — an alpine ridge : or the forms 
of animals — the flight of birds — the colours of flowers : 
or, as exemplified below, the forms and colours of trees, 
collectively and singly — excluding those terms that are 
strictly botanical and technical, as thus : — 

A Forest is said to be — dense, dark, deep, entangled, pathless, gloomy, rich, 
magnificent, primeval. 

Trees are— lofty, tall, low, bushy, ample, stately, umbrageous, wide-spread- 
in", vigorous, decaying, shattered, leafless, scathed. 

Foliage is— verdant, sombre, variegated, dense, fleaky, tufted, scaly, light, 
heavy, motionless, dancing, trembling. 

21* 



246 HOME EDUCATION 1 

The branches and roots are — gnarled, knotted, tortuous, slim, elastic, stoop- 
ing, erect, fan-like, prone, supine, interlaced, aspiring. 

The trunk is — massive, slender, twisted, helix-like, rugged, riven, hollow, 
ivy-clad, moss-covered, slanting, erect, fallen. 

The bark is — rough, smooth, chapped, rigid, soft, interlaced, rugose, silvery, 
black, brown, gray, red, ashy. 

The leaf is — thick, thin, polished, rough, indented, even, scolloped, triform, 
hairy, downy, trembling, green, yellow, red, brown, dark, light, bright, 
dull. 

To these might easily be added as many more ; and if 
the learner be furnished with an instance or two, so as to 
set him a-going, the exercise, agreeable in itself, will tend 
at once to enlarge his acquaintance with language — to give 
him a ready command of it ; and, which is what we here 
principally intend, to impart richness, precision, and viva- 
city to the conceptive faculty. 

Or to take another example : — 

The sky is spoken of as — serene, stormy, clear, overcast, misty, hazy, foggy, 
gloomy, lowering, bright, resplendent, brilliant, deep, dull, brazen, ruf- 
fled, red, gray, azure, vaulted, boundless, bounded. 

At night it is — blackened, sombre, dim, sparkling, spangled, starry, mag- 
nificent. 

Clouds are — thick, thin, heavy, light, dark, tender, fleecy, streaky, dappled, 
fleaky, massive, dense, mural, stormy, rushing, flying, flitting, motion- 
less, broken, scattered, condensed, distinct, defined, commingled, con- 
fused, heaped, piled, towering, jagged, rounded, in tiers, or strata, black, 
leaden, blue, red, pink, orange, fiery, glowing, cold, purpled, golden, 
silvery, fringed, feathery, buoyant, swollen, swelling, billowy, bulging, 
stooping, loaded, mantling, rainy, snowy, gathering, clearing, electric. 

To these, nearly a hundred terms, descriptive of ordinary 
overhead appearances, the poet would add many others, of 
an allusive or figurative kind ; such as — gay, glad, melan- 
choly, cheerful, ominous, portentous ; and the painter not 
a few of a peculiar sort, invented, partly, to fix in his re- 
collection certain rare and peculiar aspects of the heavens ; 
and partly (and perhaps chiefly,) to indicate those charac- 
teristics of these same appearances that demand attention, 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 247 

when consigned to the canvass, whether skilfully or un- 
skilfully; such are the terms — woolly, muddy, dirty, 
chalky, muzzy, harsh, warm, cold, clean, raw, heavy. 

It is an exercise of excellent tendency to put down as 
great a numher of epithets as we can think of, applicable to 
some one subject, such as the foregoing ; and then, cutting 
up the paper, and shuffling the pieces, to require the 
learner to arrange them in line, and in an order indicating 
the simplicity, or the complexity, the proximity, or the re- 
moteness of each term, in relation to the natural order of 
our perceptions, and of the impressions thence resulting : 
as for instance : — a rock, or a mass of rocks, considered as 
to its size, is — 

[1st. Large, tall, wide, deep.] 

[2d. Lofty, vast, huge, massive.] 

[3d. Stupendous, grand, sublime, awful.] 

Or, considered as to its form and position, it is — 

[1st. Square, pyramidal, rounded, perpendicular, arched, obtuse, riven, cleft, 
jagged.] 

[2d. Precipitous, steep, rugged, naked, impending, inaccessible, cloud-cap- 
ped.] 

[3d. Frightful, melancholy, threatening, grim, stern, dread.] 

In the above examples, the words embraced in the first 
crotchets, relate to simple qualities, cognizable immedi- 
ately by the senses of sight and touch. Those included in 
the second, express notions resulting from some tacit com- 
parison, or relation, conjoined with a slight indication of the 
feeling with which such objects are contemplated. Those 
in the third set are tropical, and imply some sort of proso- 
popeia ; or an attributing of the qualities of mind to natural 
objects. Several important intellectual habits must have 
been acquired by a boy who could take a handful of such 



248 HOME EDUCATION T 

slips, and sort them correctly, on the principle here men- 
tioned. 

Descriptive terms, collected in parcels as above, are 
concretes ; that is to say, they are taken as the adjuncts of 
some one subject. But the same class of words are sus- 
ceptible of assortment, or classification, in the abstract, or 
taken as related to the mode in which the qualities they 
signify are entertained by the human mind. A compre- 
hensive scheme for the classification of this portion of 
language would cover a great space in a volume like this ; 
nor can I attempt more than to offer a few samples of 
the way in which easy exercises may be prepared for 
learners, and given to them, rather as pastimes than as 
lessons. 

First, then, let it be required to produce the principal 
terms that are employed to express those qualities of the 
material world which are perceived by one of the senses, 
unaided by the others, and apart from any inferences de- 
rived from other sources ; and apart also from any notions 
of relation, or comparison ; as for instance — 

The simple sensations of Smell, are indicated by naming the substance 
whence they proceed ; as, the smell of musk, lavender, the rose, the vio- 
let, brimstone, burning feathers, &c. 

The simple sensations of Taste, have terms in the abstract, for the principal 
classes, such as — sweet, bitter, sour, acrid ; and concrete terms for the 
varieties, such as — flavour of an orange, apple, grape, of port wine, 
champagne, of beef, mutton, veal. 

The simple sensations of the Muscular Power have appropriated to them 
such words as — hard, soft, (heavy, light.) 

The simple sensations of the Touch (seated in the cuticle) are indicated by 
the words — hot, cold, warm, rough, smooth, soft, sharp, blunt, tingling, 
tickling, itching, smarting. 

The simple sensations of Hearing, are noted by the words — loud, low, shrill, 
deep, sharp : and still more accurately by the system of musical nota- 
tion. Single variations of tone are indicated by employing individual 
names, as — the voice of John, the voice of Mary, &c, each of which is 
absolutely peculiar — an elementary tone, in recollecting which we are 
seldom mistaken. 



AVORDS AND IDEAS. 249 

The simple sensations ofSiOHT, are peculiarly definite, and the terms appro- 
priated to them are never confounded: such are the words — bright, dark, 
white, yellow, orange, red, blue, purple ; and all their intermixtures!, un- 
til we reach the nicest distinctions, and are obliged to have recourse to 
concretes, as in the phrases — peach-blossom, rosy, flesh-coloured, ver- 
milion, ash-coloured, jet, ebony, &c. 

A sample of terms, of this elementary order, having been 
produced by the learner, he should proceed to adduce, un- 
der an analogous arrangement, a second set, comprising 
those terms that indicate qualities known to us by an un- 
conscious comparison of the sensations of two or more of 
the senses ; or by comparisons of different sensations of 
the same sense ; as thus, and to invert our order — 

Objects perceived by the visual organ alone, but yet unconsciously compared 
with others, present or recollected, are said to be — dim, distinct, vivid, 
faint, glowing, faded; or if judged of by the convergence of the two or- 
bits (touch apart) they are discerned to be near, or remote. 

Objects perceived and thought of by the means of the combined sensations of 
sight and touch, or of muscular movement, are — large, small, wide, nar- 
row, high, low, spherical, hollow, convex, sharp, blunt, pyramidal, cubi- 
cal, jagged, even, abiupt, slender, bulky. 

Bodies, the qualities of which are perceived by the sense of touch, and of 
muscular action mainly ; but known still more accurately by the concur- 
rence of the perceptions of sight (and this class is very numerous) are 
said to be — solid, fluid, (or liquid,) gaseous, glutinous, sticky, elastic, 
pliable, tough, rigid, brittle, dense, porous ; or the texture of bodies is 
considered as — fibrous, crystallized, spongy, woolly, compact, hairy, 
downy, reticulated, vascular, granulated. 

Bodies, the qualities of which are judged of by an intimately combined com- 
parison of the sensations of touch, muscular power, sight, smell, and per- 
haps taste, are said to be — oily, greasy, resinous, mealy, soapy. 

Bodies, the qualities of which affect, in an undistinguishable manner, and si- 
multaneously, the gustatory and olfactory organs, together with the 
sense of touch, and sometimes of muscular power in the tongue, are call- 
ed — acrid, crude, pungent, astringent, rough : or, if the smell chiefly, 
and the gustatory organ indirectly and obscurely are affected — aromatic, 
putrescent, ammoniacal. 

The sensations of the auditory organ are rarely combined with those of the 
other senses ; and only in the way of imperfect coalescence : such are 
certain vibrations of highly elastic substances, affecting simultaneously, 
though hardly conjointly, the ear and the sense of touch. But sounds, 



250 home education: 

and musical sounds especially, generate highly complex sensations, as 
related one to the other, successively, as in melody, or simultaneously, 
as in harmony. 

A second series of exercises may be furnished by pro- 
ducing those terms (belonging to each of the senses,) that 
express some relation of the qualities of bodies to natural 
uses, ends, or artificial purposes ; such are the words — 
ductile, malleable, soluble, arid, humid, tenacious, pene- 
trating, ponderable, impalpable, opaque, transparent, re- 
fractive, reflecting, radiating, corrosive, stimulating, ab- 
sorbent, dispersive, sedative. 

A third series may consist of those terms, many of them 
scientific or technical, which express the elementary char- 
acteristics of bodies,' or their generic or specific adjuncts ; 
such as, siliceous, argillaceous, metallic, vitreous, ligneous, 
bituminous, saline, gelatinous ; or — granivorous, carnivo- 
rous, gregarious, predacious, viviparous, oviparous, biped, 
quadruped, reptile. 

A fourth series, embracing a wide variety of terms, would 
include those designations of the sensible qualities of bodies 
which indicate, or connote, the feelings, pleasurable or 
painful, excited in us by them : such as, 

First, the more simple and organic, namely — tepid, hot, scalding, cold, re- 
freshing, burning, irritating, glaring, dazzling, stunning, sweet, soothing, 
thrilling, melodious : or, secondly, the more complicate, and such as in- 
volve associations with the intellectual and moral faculties ; as the words 
— beautiful, sublime, pleasing, gentle, grand, magnificent, tremendous, 
terrible, awful, astounding, exhilarating, melancholy, monotonous, in- 
vigorating, cheerful, gloomy : or — complicated, complex, simple, ab- 
struse, recondite, obscure, evanescent, refined, subtile. 

Under heads such as these, and which may be varied in 
many ways, at the pleasure of the teacher, and for the bet- 
ter exercise of the learner, it will be easy to include the 
entire vocabulary of concrete terms belonging to the 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 251 

English language ; and those who have not made the ex- 
periment will be surprised when they do so, to find, on the 
one hand, the readiness and facility that may soon be 
acquired in going through with them ; and on the other, the 
productive consequence of such methods : for, not only do 
they confer upon the mind a command of language, and not 
only do they generate a habit of nice discrimination, as to 
the sense of words, and their real dependence, but they put 
it (and this is our immediate purpose) into ready communi- 
cation with the material universe, in all its innumerable 
aspects, and store the imagination with vivid conceptions 
of whatever is cognizable to the senses. It belongs to 
another department of our educational system to insist 
upon the fact, which I have already alluded to, and will 
here again offer to the reader's consideration, that a com- 
prehensive, well digested, and practised acquaintance 
with the concrete portion of any one language, amazingly 
facilitates the acquirement of another, or of several, in 
conjunction. The well-assorted descriptive terms of our 
own language, vividly associated with the qualities they in- 
dicate, become, as one might say, so many points of con- 
cretion — of crystallization, around which the equivalent 
terms of any other language assemble, with the celerity 
and certainty, almost, of a chemical process ; for, while 
the abstract terms of a language are open to ambiguities, 
preventing the fixed convertibility of one language into 
another, the concrete, expressive as they are of the impres- 
sions made upon the human mind, in all times and coun- 
tries, by the unchanging qualities of the material world 
are far more constant, and better defined. And it is a 
circumstance deserving of regard, in this connexion, 
that the lower we descend toward the nice shades of differ- 
ence between one quality and another, the more fixed are 
the terms, in all languages, that are employed to mark 
them. 






252 home education: 

But I must resist the inclination to pursue this, and 
several other related subjects ; and having hastily indicated 
the course that may be pursued, or rather the objects that 
should be kept in view, in training the conceptive faculty, 
shall conclude this chapter by naming one or two useful 
practices, having the same intention. 

Drawing and modelling, in all their modes, should, as I 
think, be considered, not so much as an elegant accom- 
plishment, and as one of the most agreeable of relaxations 
from more arduous employments ; but as the best possible 
supplementary means for bringing the eye and the mind 
into intimate communion with nature. Drawing on the 
one side, and the study of language on the other, in some 
such mode as has just been indicated, bear together upon 
the conceptive faculty, and with a stress that imparts to it a 
condensed force, and reactive spring. 

But then, for securing these objects, the rule must be to 
have done with " drawing lessons," almost entirely. A 
child, in a winter's evening may indeed be indulged with the 
lithographic sketch-book, to copy what he pleases ; but all 
regular training, in the arts, ought to consist of drawing 
from real objects, at home and abroad. Apart from this 
rational method, the mind halts in art, and does not step 
forward to converse with nature. And when, by this 
means, a tolerable readiness has been acquired in the use 
of pencil and crayons, .it is a good practice to require 
sketches of objects, or of scenes, that have previously en- 
gaged the attention. This operation, held in check by the 
constant habit of drawing from the present object, is a di- 
rect appeal to the conceptive power, and affords the most 
conclusive evidence of its exactness, and of its vivacity in 
any instance. In this way the simplest and the most de- 
finite subjects will furnish the most satisfactory exercises. 
Thus, for example, I would not ask merely for — a land- 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 253 

scape — a cottage, and a mill, or a rocky glen at pleasure ; 
but for the gable end of John Brown's ivy-covered cottage, 
visited a month ago ; or for the ruined south front of the 
tower beneath which we find a shade twice or thrice during 
the summer. Or, in July or August, let it be required 
(patterns out of the question) to produce an exact outline 
of the snowdrop or the crocus : or the converse task, of 
delineating the flowers of July in January. 

On the same obvious principle, the various subjects of 
natural history, and those which are less familiar, immedi- 
ately after they have been attentively examined, may be 
sketched from recollection. Drawing, disregarded almost 
as an elegant accomplishment, may, with the highest ad- 
vantage, be employed as an auxiliary to the sort of elemen- 
tary culture which has been spoken of in this, and the pre- 
ceding chapter. The process consists of these three parts : 
— to see and examine whatever may be brought before the 
eye — to connect words, in all their compass, with what has 
been seen — and, to delineate or depict whatever has been 
seen, and whatever, by the aid of verbal description, may 
be correctly conceived of. By the means of these com- 
mingled operations, not only does the entire face of nature 
become familiarly known, but it is steadfastly held in the 
conceptive faculty, and is always producible, instantane- 
ously, and correctly. 

If in any instance a child appears to have no eye, or 
hand, or executive and imitative faculty, I would by no 
means vex him by pertinacious endeavours to form a habit 
in opposition to the intentions of nature. Drawing is an 
excellent means of training — for those to whom it is suit- 
ed ; and I think there are but few who need to be excluded 
from the benefits it confers. 

The exercises in collecting descriptive words, just above 
specified, are adapted to be written, as they imply deliber- 
ate recollection, and some revision ; but the mental opera- 
22 



254 HOME EDUCATION : 

tion is of a different sort when the task enjoined is an 
extemporaneous utterance of thought. For in this case 
the pure law of association comes into operation, and pre* 
Vails over any notions of fitness, or abstract relation. This 
method also should enter into our plans ; and it may be 
put in practice (as related to the training of the conceptive 
faculty) by the following, or similar easy means. Perhaps 
no book better than Robinson Crusoe, furnishes the mate* 
rials we want for our purpose. A boy, whom we suppose 
already to have become pretty familiar with the story, may 
be directed to some one of the more stirring passages, of 
which, in all its details, he is to make himself master. 
After an interval of some days, he is required to ascen d 
the rostrum, or to mount the library table, and thence, 
without bombast or exaggeration, to recount the incidents , 
giving them all the vividness he can, and yet avoiding the 
actual phrases of De Foe. If he be master of French 
enough, or of Latin, to render the story into either of those 
languages, several benefits will be secured together. 

The reason for assuming De Foe's romance, in such an 
instance, is, that the simplicity, familiarity, naivete, and 
vividness of the description, bring the scenery, in the most 
lively manner, before the mind, and enable it to tread the 
ground of the story* as if we were actually narrating our 
personal history. In attempting a similar exercise, taking 
some signal transaction of real history as the subject, other* 
faculties would be called into exercise, and in a manner 
not unlikely to repress the conceptive. 

We may however make the attempt with certain striking 
events ; such for instance as belong to the history of the 
Black Prince, or of Henry V. ; or perhaps, still better, the 
principal scenes of the Crusades. These last, if the mate- 
rials are afforded in sufficient abundance, may answer the 
purposes intended in the best manner. The young speak- 
er, in such instances, should be taught to confine himself 



WORDS AND IDEAS. 255 

to what would, on the real field of action, have struck the 
eye and ear. At present, we want neither reflections, nor 
reasoning, any more than declamation. 

It will be manifest that the exercises adverted to in this 
and the preceding chapters, are adapted, some to the ear- 
liest, and some to the latest years embraced by a course of 
Home education. In some, the teacher is the principal 
actor, and aims at little more than to supply an expanding 
faculty with objects, adapted to it ; in others it is the 
learner who is to take the lead, directed only, and aided by 
the teacher. The process of training, therefore, which we 
intend, is one that will run on from the fifth, to the fifteenth 
year, being kept in view, as occasion offers, and made to 
harmonize with the culture, simultaneously bestowed upon 
the other faculties. It takes the first place in our plan of 
education, simply because it is the earliest to show itself 5 
and because nature has assigned to it the principal in- 
fluence during the first eight or ten years of life. 



CHAPTER XI. 

TRAINING OF THE SENSE OF RESEMBLANCE AND RELATION, 
AND OF THE PERCEPTION OF ANALOGY. 

As early developed almost as the conceptive faculty, the 
sense of Resemblance agrees with it in the circumstance 
that it comes into play independently of any conscious ef- 
fort of the mind : it is an intuition ; and the culture of 
both may be carried very far without making any demand 
upon the power of continuous attention, and therefore, 
without expending that force which we wish to keep in re- 
serve. The same nearly may be affirmed concerning the 
perception of analogy. 

Nevertheless, while a field is open to us in this direc. 
tion, where much may be done with little labour, the ulti- 
mate product of the means we are using is great and mani- 
fold. The culture of these spontaneous faculties may be 
compared to the farming of pasture land, where the pro- 
duce is large in proportion to the number of hands em- 
ployed, or to the labour annually bestowed ; but the culture 
of the abstractive and reasoning faculties, is like the farm- 
ing of arable land ; where the crop, how valuable soever it 
may be, is hardly obtained, by dint of toil — -acre by acre, 
rood by rood, foot by foot. 

The due culture of the two, that is to say of the Con- 
ceptive faculty, and of the perception of Resemblance and 
Analogy, constitutes the preparation for whatever else, 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 257 

either of knowledge or of power, a complete education is 
intended to confer. The operations of the first are attended 
with and characterized by tranquil emotions of pleasure ; 
but those of the latter make themselves known by a vivid 
flash of agreeable feeling. The former leaves the mind 
content with its own evolutions ; the latter rouses it to ac- 
tion, and impels it either to inquiry, or to imitation : in 
giving it excitement and direction, we are therefore making 
an approach, in an easy and natural manner, toward the 
more arduous paths of the educational course. The tran- 
sition is imperceptible and inviting, from the half involun- 
tary discernment of resemblance, to the somewhat more 
active perception of analogy ; and thence it is but a step to 
efforts of abstraction ; and thence again onward to the ope- 
rations of the reasoning power. 

The sense of resemblance runs before the power of dis- 
criminating or of designating differences : hence it happens 
that, by the infant and the savage, the names of individuals 
are extended to species, and the names of species to genera. 
Thus the infant of two years old calls a dog, puss, (if puss 
has been the more familiar acquaintance of the two,) and 
mamma's muff puss also ; and it does so with a sprightly 
emotion, as if of self-complacency, in finding that it has 
recognized the sameness, notwithstanding the difference, of 
the two objects : and the more there is of dissimilarity, so 
as that the points of identity still prevail, the keener is the 
pleasure that is felt in the act of recognition : — it is as 
when one, entering the house from a journey, muffled up 
in coats, is found, after he doffs his envelop, to be a dear 
but unexpected friend. 

The occasions should be particularly noted when an in- 
telligent child begins to use, and to misuse epithets, expres- 
sive of the visible characters of things ; for in such cases 
we may be sure that the mind is spontaneously evolving a 
new faculty, or new mode of action : that is to say, it is 
33* 



258 HOME EDUCATION : 

advancing from that exercise of the sense of resemblance 
which relates to species of things, toward that which em- 
braces abstract qualities. A child who, at an early period, 
makes many blunders of this sort, is one who, in the end, 
is likely to possess a ready and extensive command of lan- 
guage. I must take an actual instance or two, happening 
to be fresh in my recollection. A very little boy, looking 
from a height upon an opposite wooded hill side, about a 
mile distant, exclaimed — How beautiful are the scales of 
the wood ! He was not reproved for misusing the word, 
scales, or for extending it from the glossy back of a Roach 
or Dace, to the soft, receding, and rounded summits of a 
dense wood, seen in gentle perspective, and in a misty sum- 
mer's morning, lapping one over the other. An inland 
child, of three years, at first sight of the sea in a storm, 
calls it, very dusty, and affirms the sky, after sun-set, to be 
red hot, or when freckled with clouds, says that it is strew- 
ed with feathers. Every child finds a garden, with its firs 
and shrubs, upon a frosty window pane ; and in the heart 
of the fire he descries castles, faces, lions, and tigers. 

The class of terms, and the tropical diction which the 
poet courts, and sometimes goes far in quest of, present 
themselves spontaneously to an observant child ; and for 
this simple reason, that his perception of resemblances and 
of analogies is always far out-running his knowledge of 
language : he is therefore driven, by the mere paucity of 
his vocabulary, to misapply, or to extend terms ; and he 
often does so in that very way which involves the excel- 
lence aimed at by the poet. When at length the stores of 
the language become so familiarly known to us that the 
precisely appropriate word occurs to our recollection, for 
designating every object, and every nice variety of each, 
while we gain in the power of expression, we forfeit that 
pleasurable perplexity which arises when a resemblance is 
discerned which we can express only by borrowing a phrase 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 259 

from some remote quarter. It is in search of this very 
pleasure, that the poet steps back to the recollections of 
childhood. 

After having called a muff, puss, at two years old, and 
the sea dusty, at three, and a wood scaly, at five, thus run- 
ning on regularly toward the abstract, a child at seven or 
eight comes to express the most intimate and recondite 
emotions of his own mind by the aid of analogies, still more 
remote, but yet not less philosophically true than poetical 
in mode. A little boy, after hearing, with sparkling and 
brimful eyes, some descriptive passage from Paradise 
Lost, burst out with the exclamation, Oh ! it is like tasting 
a hundred grapes ! The next step, with the same mind, 
and as developed naturally, and without any leading on by 
a father's hand, has been the catching some really abstruse 
analogies, such as those involved in applying a principle 
of one science to the facts of another, for instance, the 
laws of motion in solids, to the action of the atmos- 
phere ; or, more familiarly, in applying a parable in the 
Gospels to an instance of conduct substantially, but not ap- 
parently analogous. 

The sense of Resemblance, involving the ideas of con- 
trast and difference (if we are speaking only of childhood) 
has respect to the visible and tangible forms of things, na- 
tural or artificial. The sense of Relation is chiefly con- 
cerned with the circumstances of sequence or order, of 
proportion and of dependence. The perception of Ana- 
logy relates often to what is more abstruse, involving iden- 
tity of principle or mode of action, or of construction, as 
well as sameness in uses, or final causes. While there- 
fore the first-named of these intuitions of the mind at- 
taches to the time of its earliest dawn, the second hardly 
comes into operation until infancy has gone by ; and the 
third, except with children unusually intelligent, ought not 



260 HOME EDUCATION : 

to be looked for until near the commencement of the later 
period of early life, or about the eleventh year. Never- 
theless the three mental states run one into another so im- 
perceptibly, and they lead on, one from another, so na- 
turally, that it would scarcely be practicable to treat of 
them otherwise than conjointly. The methods of exercise 
I have to suggest are proper, some to the fifth year, some 
to the fifteenth ; and I here again, and once for all, remind 
the reader of this circumstance. 

I shall touch upon the several points just named, as 
briefly as possible ; consistently with the conveyance of my 
meaning in a manner that may be practically available. 

Let us speak then of the sense of Resemblance, and of 
its implied correlatives — the perception of contrast and dis- 
similarity. The conceptive faculty is concerned, as we 
have said, with the correspondence between ideas, and 
their archetypes in nature ; but the sense of resemblance 
has to do with external objects only ; and as they happen to 
be brought into comparison : nor even among such objects 
does it properly relate to things identical, or nearly so ; but 
rather to such as are distinguishable, on some accounts, 
while, in other respects, they are similar. Thus this sense 
is not quickened by the mere presence of two or more ob- 
jects barely distinguishable, or absolutely alike ; but it 
waits to be roused by the conjoined influence of sameness 
and difference. A child, standing at a stile, in a narrow 
lane, watches the passing of a flock of lambs, with a va- 
cant stare ; but if these lambs, with their curling fleeces, 
are succeeded by a flock of newly-shorn sheep, the same- 
ness and the difference, and the former obtruded on the 
eye by the latter, rouse the attention, and a question, briskly 
put, gives evidence of the awakening of curiosity : then if 
these should be followed by a flock of goats, a new vivacity 
is added to the same feeling, and another inquiry is made. 

The reader will not, I hope, think my instances too tri- 



THE SENSE OP ANALOGY. 261 

vial, if I ask it to be supposed that a child has been 
amusing himself with marbles, all of a size, and nearly all of 
the same colour : if then there be placed before him, first, 
a number of white ivory balls of the same size as the mar- 
bles, and then, a set of ebony cubes, or prisms, I think it 
will generally be found that the former, as brought into 
comparison with the marbles, excite more attention than 
the latter ; inasmuch as the sameness of figure and size, 
combined with the difference of weight and texture, sets 
the mind at work more than is done by objects entirely 
dissimilar, in form, colour, and weight. But whatever 
might be the result of such an experiment, and which may 
be affected by accidents, the broad fact is certain that re- 
semblance excites attention, and gives pleasure, directly 
in proportion to the contrasts with which it may be 
associated. 

It is not therefore to the imitative arts that we are to 
look (as in relation to the conceptive faculty) for the aids 
we want in arousing the mind to the exercise of its sense 
of resemblance. Occasions must be looked for, and seized 
at the moments when they arise, for applying the sort of 
stimulus we need, with this view. A formal pursuit of our 
intention, as if it were to be separately regarded in a course 
of study, is out of the question. But when, for example, 
the teacher is engaged with any branch of natural history, 
instances in point will offer themselves at every turn. 
Thus if the stem of the lily be under examination, and the 
peculiarity of structure in consequence of which it rises 
like a column from the earth, and does not, like most other 
plants, gradually increase in bulk, be pointed out, the ques- 
tion may be put. supposing the learner to be in possession 
of the requisite information — Whether he recollects any 
classes of trees or plants of which this is the distinction ; 
and then, if in fact any of the tropical endogenous plants, 
such as the palm, the bamboo, the cane, occur to him, the 



262 HOME EDUCATION I 

mere recognition of the resemblance between things sore- 
mote and so unlike gives the mind an impulse, and leads it 
to look for new instances of the same kind. 

The more of vivacity is derived from contrast, the more 
will resemblance arouse curiosity. The teacher, with this 
intention, may assemble his little group around him, chal- 
lenging them to look at — an elephant not bigger than a 
pea ; and then bringing under the microscope a common 
fly, busy with a lump of sugar, may show the proboscis — 
like enough to that of the elephant, in form, and in the mode 
of using it, to make all acquiesce in the designation that 
has been given it. On the first occasion of visiting a me- 
nagerie, children, of themselves, recognize the cat, in the 
tiger, and the dog, in the wolf: and such an opportunity is 
a proper one for directing their attention to those peculiari- 
ties of action and gait, as well as general form, which are 
the points of alliance within classes and orders. Again 
the microscope, applied to certain species of moss, and to 
gome kinds of vegetable mould, affords an agreeable sur- 
prise when these are exhibited as little forests ; and espe- 
cially so if, by the aid of the solar or lucernal microscope, 
such objects are brought the more strikingly into compari- 
son with trees and shrubs, as to size. Some other feelings 
are combined in that delight with which children will fix 
their gaze upon the aquatic plants and lichens that often 
enrich a little pool of translucent water ; or upon the sea- 
weed glens and grottoes, alcoves and fairy palaces, found 
in the hollows of a rocky coast, at the ebb of tide. During 
long hours is the fancy enchained by analogies of this sort. 

If a box of geometric figures — cubes, cones, prisms, 
pyramids, be put into the hands of a child, with the techni- 
cal names attached to them, he will exhibit a lively plea- 
sure in replying to questions, such as shall lead him to re- 
cognize each of these forms in some familiar object ; as 
the roof of a house — a prism ; the church spire, or the ex- 



THE SENSE OP ANALOGY. 2C3 

tinguiaher — a cone ; a beer barrel — a frustrated spindle ; a 
cricket ball — a sphere ; an egg — a prolate, and a turnip — > 
an oblate spheroid. A similar exercise is afforded in de- 
signating vegetable forms, for instance leaves, by compa- 
rison with common objects: thus leaves are — arrow shap- 
ed, spear-shaped, sword-shaped, heart-shaped, fiddle-shap- 
ed, trowel-shaped, diamond-shaped, feather-shaped, awl- 
shaped, spoon-shaped, shield-shaped, ribbon-like, string-like, 
tooth-like. The finding a fit comparison is a good means of 
exercising ingenuity in this line. A pleasure, having the 
same origin, attends the use of those designations that are 
frequently applied to the bold features of the earth's sur- 
face ; as — Table mountain, Saddle ridge, Sugar loaf, the 
Needles, the Seething pot ; or the allusive terms so plenti- 
fully employed in descriptions of stalactite caverns, as — 
the giant's dining room, dressing room, kitchen, chapel. 
The perception of such resemblances adds what is wanted 
in carrying forward the culture of the conceptive faculty, 
until it works in with that of the abstractive power. 

Again, the sense of Resemblance embraces those quali- 
ties of things visible and tangible which are designated by 
abstract terms ; and here a wide field is open to us, on 
which to prepare the mind for higher aud more difficult ex* 
ercises. As we must return to this subject in treating of 
the abstractive faculty, we now only adduce an instance or 
two in explanation of our meaning, as when, for example, 
Transparency is specified in all the substances to which 
it attaches, whether natural or artificial ; beginning with the 
one to which the term is most often applied, colloquially, 
and going on to instances less likely to be thought of. As 
thus — What things are transparent? Glass, diamonds, 
crystal, horn, talc, oiled tissue paper, water, spirits, and — 
the atmosphere : and we may bring to the same termina- 
tion another question : — What things are heavy 1 Lead, 
stone, wood, water, and — air. In such instances, when 



264 HOME EDUCATION : 

the quality in question is recognized as belonging to some- 
thing quite familiar, and yet not often thought of, in that 
point of view, there is excited precisely the sort of agreea- 
ble surprise of which good use may be made in awakening 
the intellect. That the atmosphere is transparent, a child 
readily grants ; but he starts at first hearing the invisible, 
impalpable air he breathes associated with lead, or with 
stones. 

Or thus — What substances, which are solid when de- 
prived of heat, do we usually find in a fluid state 1 Water, 
yes, and — quicksilver. A wooden hoop, thrown aloft, re- 
bounds several feet from the earth : it is, elastic. But this dis- 
tended bladder does so too ; is bladder elastic? no ; but that 
with which it is filled with is so, namely' — air : a hoop, and 
a steel spring, and — the atmosphere, are then alike in this 
respect, they are all — elastic. The atmosphere therefore 
is — heavy, like lead ; transparent, like water ; and elastic, 
like steel. Or again : Some bodies are permanently of one 
colour ; gold is yellow, silver white, a rose-leaf red, an 
iris blue ; but other bodies exhibit changing colours, when 
seen in different positions ; and seem in themselves to be 
colourless : what are the instances'? — mother of pearl, 
drops of rain, or dew, garden cobwebs, soap bubbles, films 
of oil upon water, and many kinds of crystals. 

The sense of Relation is, in strictness, only the dis- 
cernment of a sameness, under circumstances of difference; 
as when a part is seen to be a third, or a fourth, of the 
whole ; the part is thought of as many times over as will 
make it equal to, or the same as, the whole. The relation 
of sequence constitutes the principal ground or material of 
that ulterior and important process of education which 
bears upon Cause and Effect. And the relation of propor- 
tion also, is too intimately connected with mathematical 
principles, to be easily treated of in this stage of our 



THE SENSE OP ANALOGY. 265 

■Course ; at least the consideration of it would involve some 
real or apparent repetitions. But we may find an open 
field in eliciting the sense of analogy ; or that more refined 
discernment of resemblances which embraces general phy- 
sical laws, identities of principle, or modes of action, the 
sameness of final causes, and those agreements, or points 
of harmony, that are discoverable between the material and 
the spiritual and moral worlds. A very large portion of 
that sort of incidental exercise of the faculties — that inces- 
sant, intellectual communion, which should be the charac- 
teristic of home education, turns upon the diversified me- 
thods that are employed in developing the sense of analogy. 
All courses of mental exertion are opened to the mind 
that is already alive to this class of perceptions ; and it 
may be said that a keen and active perception of analogy 
involves every kind of mental power. 

Instances adduced just as they present themselves, may 
serve well enough to illustrate a method of treatment which, 
in its own nature, must be desultory, and dependent upon 
occasions, accidentally presented. I do not know that it 
would be possible, even if it seemed desirable, to follow a 
prescribed plan, or a logical order, in carrying forward this 
species of culture. 

No instance is more fit for giving exercise to the early 
developed sense of analogy, or better exemplifies the agree- 
able emotion which, by the conformation of our minds, at- 
tends this perception, than that furnished when we bring 
the labours, politics, and passions, of some of the insect 
tribes into comparison with the economy of human life. 
The insect edifices, the insect police, the insect social 
sentiments, furnish a lively and stimulating species of in- 
structive entertainment ; and the pleasure, and the ex- 
citement, in such instances, turn upon this propensity of 
the human mind to catch, and to please itself with, an-* 
alogies. 

23 



266 HOME EDUCATION : 

In pursuing this sort of intellectual diversion, the teach- 
er's purpose is favoured by his allowing himself a good 
deal of license in applying the phrases of common life, and 
the technical terms of the mechanic arts, as well as all but 
the more sacred and elevated language of the moral and 
social economy, to the operations of the insect tribes. He 
will however observe the line which separates the regions 
of natural history, strictly considered, from the unfenced 
common of fable ; for children must be left in no uncer- 
tainty as to the boundary between the domains of Linnseus, 
and those of iEsop. The use of the fable, in education, 
we must return to presently. 

If the reader wishes to satisfy himself as to the alleged 
fact, that the discernment of analogies generates very vivid 
emotions in the human mind, and that therefore it may be 
made much use of, as an engine of education, let him try 
the easy experiment of first describing, to children, the 
economy of the bee-hive, and of the ant-hill, in terms such 
as shall indicate the many points of analogy that exist be- 
tween the wonders of instinct, and the operations of rea- 
son: let the mathematical perfection attained by the one 
class of operatives, be compared with the empirical and 
scientific performances of the other : let the impulses of 
the insect actors, and the regulations and dependencies of 
the microscopic commonwealth, be translated into the lan- 
guage of human life, of history and of political science. . 
The most agreeable excitement will attend such a lecture. 
But then let a sudden transition be made to those subjects, 
in natural history, which involve no such analogical rela- 
tions to human labours, or affairs : a very sensible lowering 
of the intellectual temperature will give evidence that a 
potent principle of the mind has ceased to be wrought 
upon. In thus turning from the natural history of the bee, 
to that of the moth or common fly ; from that of the ant to 
that of the beetle ; or in following our account of the 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 267 

beaver, with an account of the otter ; it will be manifest 
that it is not so much insulated facts, as facts related 
by some principles of agreement, that awaken the intel- 
lect. 

The analogies of operation above alluded to, do not fail 
to attract even the dullest minds ; but an exercise more 
purely intellectual, and of a more substantial quality, is 
afforded when the many points of analogy which connect 
animal and vegetable physiology, and again human and 
comparative anatomy, are adduced. On this ground the 
teacher finds inexhaustible materials, out of which to con- 
struct the very best kind of intellectual exercises ; and let 
me here again press upon his notice the important distinc- 
tion between the mere conveyance of the facts of natural 
history, for example; and that employment of natural his- 
tory, as an instrument of mental culture, which I am now 
recommending. While using these or any other studies 
for this latter purpose, the former, and more obvious one, 
is fully secured ; but it is certain that this, namely, the con- 
veyance of mere facts, may be so attended to as scarcely 
at all to promote the other. 

There may be books better adapted to the purpose now 
in view than Dr. Roget's Bridgewater Treatise ; but I will 
suppose that the teacher avails himself of this admirable 
work as his text book, and following the author's track, with- 
out always adopting his language, which may not be readily 
understood by children, he goes through with the several 
functions of vegetable and animal life, comparing the va- 
rious modes in which the same, or similar ends, are 
secured, either by the same, or by dissimilar, yet analo- 
gous means. 

The obvious and wide unlikeness of a plant and an ani- 
mal, serves the very purpose intended, of enhancing the 
feelings of pleasure and surprise excited by discovering 
points of analogy between the two, in the economy of 



268 HOME EDUCATION .' 

growth and reproduction. Thus the circulation of the nu- 
tritive fluids, and the system of the secretive processes, 
the respiratory mechanism, and the absorbent system, the 
vital irritability, and the fibrous contractility, as belonging 
to both these grand divisions in nature, not only stimulate 
curiosity, but lead on, in an insensible yet secure manner, 
toward the higher and more difficult efforts of abstraction. 
Now, at this point, we might compare two given modes of 
mental training, the one of which enjoins that, at a certain 
era of education, Logic, with its dry solemnities (not to say 
jargon) shall be taught ; while the other method, not caring 
much whether the word logic has actually fallen on the ear, 
and assuredly not meddling with the 

Barbara, celarcnt, darii, ferioque, prions— 

offers to the opening mind intelligible objects, drawn from 
the agreeable realities of nature, which lead it on unconsci- 
ously, and without labour, from its intuitive perceptions of 
relationship and analogy, to the most refined and abstruse 
generalizations. I am bold, and might be warm, in affirm^ 
ing, that this latter method, early commenced, and steadily 
pursued, is the one which promises to train reasoners who 
shall find their education actually available in real life, and 
out of college ; or to train philosophers, who, instead of 
dreaming with Thomas Aquinas, shall advance the useful 
sciences. 

No better book of elementary logic could in my opinion* 
be constructed, than one which should simply select, and 
judiciously arrange, those instances of analogy which con- 
nect the several families of organized beings ; and which, 
commencing with the most obvious resemblances of form, 
should ascend to remote alliances of principle, involving 
the ultimate laws of life. So insensible are the steps that 
may be taken, if we choose our path, on this ground, that, 
if the process be extended through a course of two or three ; 



THE SENSE OP ANALOGY. 269 

years, the learner may be led on from those perceptions 
which are involuntary, intuitive, and pleasurable, to the very 
highest points of abstruse speculation ; scarcely knowing 
when he has made an effort to rise : — just as a traveller, in 
certain districts of central Asia, may pursue an easy road 
from the dead levels of the Caspian steppes, to the most 
elevated Tartarian table lands — overlooking a continent; 
and scarcely know that he has been holding an upward 
path. 

Sameness and difference — differences among things very 
nearly related ; and samenesses connecting things very re- 
mote, are the objects of the physical sciences : and it is 
these same points of contrast, and of harmony, that supply 
the best incitements to the opening intellectual powers. 
When, to some considerable extent, the sentient and organ- 
ized families have been brought forward, first, as to their 
external resemblances of form ; next, as to their habits ; 
and lastly, as to the laws of their internal structure, and 
vital functions, then comes the time for ascending to ano- 
ther stage, and for advancing towards those principles 
which involve identity of law, rather than analogy of 
principle. This more advanced species of mental culture 
is afforded by those of the physical sciences that are more 
or less dependent upon mathematical reasoning. It is 
therefore now assumed that a moderate proficiency in the 
mathematics, has been made by the learner. Although 
strictly speaking, it is not analogy, but identity of principle, 
that connects the falling of a stone, or its tangential leap 
from a sling, with the motions of the planetary system, 
nevertheless, the two classes of facts being immensely re- 
mote from each other, as observed by the human eye, and 
the one being familiar, while the other is shrouded in a 
sort of mystery, the effect upon the young mind, made by 
adducing the one, in illustration of the other, is nearly the 
same as in any instance of a mere analogy; and these 

23* 



270 HOME EDUCATION : 

physical principles, whether applied to mechanics, or astro- 
nomy, may be made to subserve the same purpose as 5 
means of education. 

The applicate and the mixed sciences — mechanics, 
pneumatics, hydraulics, hydrostatics, optics, acoustics, 
abound with instances, available for the same purpose ; 
and as often as some familiar incident of domestic life 
can be connected, by means of a word or two of scientific 
explanation, with philosophical principles, the mind of the 
learner is carried through a similar process, advancing 
from what obtrudes itself on the senses, to that which calls 
the higher faculties into play. Such a circumstance has 
occurred at a tea-table, as that of the heater of the urn- 
rushing up, impatient of its obscurity, and carrying the lid 
with it, like a broad brimmed hat, to the ceiling. What 
could we wish for better than such an incident (if no heads 
were broken by the descending mass) as an illustration of 
the principle of the steam-engine 1 A fit question, when: 
tranquillity was restored, after such an accident, would' 
have been — What mechanical contrivance does this explo- 
sion put us in mind of? and the word — the steam-engine, 
uttered in a moment, and of course, by one of the elder 
children of the family, would stimulate the curiosity of those 
next in degree below them. 

This kind of incidental exercise, no well-informed teach- 
er can need to have exemplified at length ; and the occa- 
sions are innumerable in which it may be put in practice. 
After having, as was recommended in a preceding chapter, 
gone over the entire ground of the physical sciences in 
search of such facts as are proper for enriching the ideal 
faculty ; I now suppose that the teacher returns upon his 
path, and gleans thence another sort of material, that is to 
say, those allied or analogous facts, such as have been 
mentioned, which penetrate the mind a little deeper, and 
arouse it more to action. Conceptually is passive, or 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 271 

chiefly so ; the sense of Resemblance is also a passive 
perception, yet it leads on to the discernment of analogy, 
which is more an active sense, and tends to induce a still 
higher activity. 

Chemistry, and its related sciences — meteorology, min- 
eralogy, electricity, galvanism, magnetism, are all of them 
rich in instances that may be made subservient to our im- 
mediate purpose : and let it be considered how much the 
future progress of the learner, in rendering himself master 
of the purely philosophic principles of these sciences must 
be facilitated, when he has already gone over the ground, 
twice or thrice, and in that very order which adapts itself 
to the gradual expansion of the faculties. — That is to say, 
first, in search of visible and striking facts merely, and 
such as serve to stock the mind with bright images: se- 
condly, in search of those resemblances and analogies 
which are intuitively recognized, and the recognition of 
which is attended with a lively emotion of pleasure ; and 
lastly, in the arduous pursuit of abstract generalizations, 
and recondite laws. How often is this natural method re- 
versed ; the most difficult things, and those the least attrac- 
tive, being first presented ;• and this merely because logi- 
cal order demands that they should be placed on the first 
pages of an elementary book ; or perhaps because it is 
much easier to drive the machine of education on this road, 
than on the other. 

Tn quest of the instances he wants, the teacher will some- 
times advance from the most familiar facts, such as the 
blowing a soap bubble, to the principles it illustrates ; and 
sometimes he will descend from the statement of princi- 
ples, to the most familiar illustrations; as if, after having 
talked, with due gravity, of solution, decoction, evapora- 
tion, congelation, latent heat, and the radiation of heat ; he 
holds up the cup of tea in his hand, as a combined exem- 
plification of each of these processes. 



272 home education: 

Much agreeable excitement is obtained among a number 
of intelligent children when a cluster of analogies, brought 
from all quarters, can be concentrated upon a single, and a 
familiar object, or phenomenon : as for example — upon the 
blowing of a soap bubble. If such a family circle includes 
some who have made a fair proficiency in the mathematics, 
while others have only, as yet, laughed and chatted with 
Philosophy, such questions as the following may be put to 
the group — the soap bubble being blown from the end of 
a tube, adapted to the purpose. With the bubble sus- 
pended, and the tube adroitly twirled, it is asked — What is 
now the figure of this bubble 1 it is a flattened sphere ; 
called 1 — an oblate spheroid. What oblate spheroid can 
you think of, which owes its flattened figure to the very 
same cause that has changed this bubble from a prolate to 
an oblate form ? the earth. And what is that cause 1 — the 
twirling it. Then, this earth of ours is an oblate spheroid ; 
or we might call it a bubble, blown in molten granite, and 
spinning on its axis while yet soft. But now the bubble is 
motionless, and the superfluous fluid, which had encircled 
its equatorial region, subsides, and forms a big drop, pen- 
dent at the southern pole. But do the two poles form arcs 
of the same sort? not precisely, for the upper arc is a more 
open ellipsis ; the lower tends to a point : like ? — a chain 
suspended, with a weight at the middle ; but the upper arc 
is more like 1 — the extremity, or turn, of the orbit of a 
comet. Or suppose (which we cannot do in fact) we 
could, without altering its figure, invert the suspended bub- 
ble, keeping the drop balanced at the vortex : this would 
then resemble 1 — the pointed arch, seen in some bridges, 
and in which the pressure is made to bear upon the piers, 
just as the drop would bear upon the sides of the bubble. 

But now I detach the bubble from the end of the tube, 
with a jerk, and consign it to the winds ; like 1 — a balloon : 
and like a balloon it ascends ; steadied, however, by the 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 273 

pendent drop, which may represent the car. Why does it 
ascend ? — the bubble is very thin, and very light. But so 
is the air through which it ascends. Yes, but the air within 
the bubble is rather lighter than the external air. How 
so 1 — It comes from the lungs, and is therefore lighter : 
no ; what we expire is 1 — carbonic acid gas, which is 
considerably heavier than common air: — Why then does 
the bubble ascend like a balloon 1 because air from the 
lungs is much rarefied by the heat of the body ; and this 
more than compensates for the greater density of the gas, 
when it is at the same temperature. When a balloon 
passes through a very cold stratum of the atmosphere 
it ? — collapses. When the soap bubble rises into a colder 
current of air? — it bursts: inwards or outwards? — in- 
wards : on coining from the shade into the beams of the 
sun it bursts ? — outward ; and scatters its drops on all 
sides. But see ! on this side of the bubble there is a 
miniature picture of the garden, exquisitely painted, in all 
its many colours : it is a reflection from the filmy surface : 
but why is it in miniature ? — because the surface is convex ; 
like ? — the mirror in the dining-room : a magnified image 
must proceed from 1 — a concave surface. But besides this 
coloured picture, the bubble exhibits, in the sun, all the 
tints of the rainbow, and these are changing every moment 
on its surface ; like ? — mother of pearl — like the single 
threads of a spider's web— like a film of oil upon a white 
plate, or upon the surface of water. The proficiency and 
age of the parties, in such a lecture, would determine 
whether the doctrines of refraction, and polarization, 
should be explained ; or merely the facts noticed. But 
the same occasion would lead the teacher to speak of fluid 
tenacity, and of capillary and corpuscular attraction, as ex- 
emplified in this, and many analogous instances. 

It is not necessary, at least during the earlier stages of 
education, to insist upon the difference between a general 



274 HOME EDUCATION : 

analogy, and a strict identity of principle : several of the 
instances already adduced, may therefore be allowed to 
pass, not narrowly scrutinized, in this respect; and the 
same must be said on those very frequent, and very per- 
tinent occasions, when the problems of geometry may be 
exhibited in their application to familiar operations. It is 
enough, in regard to the sort of intellectual training we 
have now in view, if, by the aid of that obscurity which is 
likely to attach to a child' snotions, the identical principle 
be just so far mystified as that the pleasurable emotion shall 
be generated which attaches peculiarly to the perception of 
analogies. 

How many advantages, of various kinds, attend the 
practice of demonstrating geometrical theorems afield, 
and with the chain and theodolite in hand ! In such oper- 
ations we combine, exhilarating exercises abroad, a definite 
intention, and an intellectual training. But to speak only 
of what belongs to my immediate purpose, it will be found 
that, after a problem has been worked-^— let us say, in its 
dry form, and upon paper, an unexpected application of the 
truth which it involves, to some real and practical purpose, 
and on a large scale, excites the sort of pleasurable sur- 
prise we are now in quest of. Let the simple rule of pro- 
portion, as applicable to right angled triangles, have been 
explained. — As the horizontal or base line is to the upright 
side, in the small triangle, A, B, C, so is the horizontal to 
the perpendicular in the large, and similar triangle D, E, F. 
This has been the morning's lesson at home : and in our 
walk immediately afterwards, we come up to a signal post, 
or flag staff, surrounded by a fair level, on which we can 
trace, and measure accurately, the shadow it casts. Now 
what is the height of this flag-staff"? How shall we mea- 
sure it 1 Will any one climb it with a line in his hand 1 In- 
stead of attempting this, we plant a walking stick upright, 
in the turf; measure it, and its shadow ; and also the 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 275 

shadow of the flag staff, and in three minutes, and perhaps 
without the aid of pencil or slate, we have found the height 
required. 

The measurement of inaccessible horizontal distances, 
by the same principle, affords another sort of diversion. 
But a little more nicety of handling, and of calculation too, 
is required for ascertaining the distance of remote objects 
by the parallax, or the known relation between the base 
and the altitude of an elongated isosceles triangle : this how- 
ever may be effected; and when we are sure that the method 
has been thoroughly understood, the moment must be tak- 
en for showing its application to the measurement of the 
celestial distances. The teaching of geometry is one 
thing ; the employment of geometrical theorems or pro- 
blems, for quickening the sense of analogy, is another. 
And it is manifest that great use may be made of this 
science for such a purpose. No day will be barren of oc- 
casions on which to bring familiar facts and abstract prin- 
ciples into opposition, one with another, in some attractive 
manner. 

That branch of intellectual training to which, in this 
volume, I am directing the reader's attention, and which 
has regard solely to the Intuitive faculties, is distinguished 
from the methods of culture hereafter to be specified in one 
particular, namely — That, whereas, when the active pow- 
ers come to be elicited a well-digested consecutive system 
must be adhered to : on the contrary the very charac- 
teristic of that sort of culture which should be addressed 
to the intuitive faculties is, that it abounds in sudden tran- 
sitions, and extreme contrasts, and as well in its subjects, 
as in the mode of presenting them. A changeful, desultory, 
rambling style, in offering to the mind those objects that 
are intended to elicit its spontaneous energies, best secures 
our purpose ; for it is a law of the human mind that, while 



276 SOME EDUCATION ' 

the active powers can effect little apart from a strict obser- 
vance of order, the passive powers, on the contrary, re- 
ceive their happiest excitement from the very absence of 
order. The experienced teacher, although he may not hap- 
pen to have defined this rule for himself, in so many words, 
will, I think, on recollection, acknowledge that it is founded 
in nature, and that, unconsciously, he has been acting upon 
it. 

Nov/, in adherence to this, as I think, very important 
rule, I would always be ready to seize opportunities, or 
would court or create them, on which to make the most 
extreme and abrupt transitions, while looking out for the 
means of eliciting the sense of analogy. For example : — 
— If the attention of children has been, for a time, fixed 
upon some such physical analogies as those above referred 
to, the apparently casual opening of Milton or of Shakspeare, 
gives opportunity to introduce a widely different class of 
ideas ; and yet a class equally bearing upon our present 
purpose. This sort of exercise, among purely intellec- 
tual or poetical analogies, may need to be a little ex- 
emplified. 

I have already once referred to the iEsopian Fable, as 
distinguished from fiction, in the higher sense of the term ; 
and again, as needing to be kept apart from those analogies 
that belong to natural history, and are strictly real. But 
the direct, or proper, use of the Fable, or apologue, has re- 
ference to the sense of analogy, when it involves some mo- 
ral or political sentiment or principle of conduct. But 
here, let it be clearly understood that it is not " the Moral " 
of the fable, or the supplementary exposition and improve- 
ment of it that we care for: this corollary is of little or no 
value ; children may pick up some practical inference from 
their reading of fables if they please, but we take other 
and better means for teaching them morality. The most 
pertinent sort of moral to a fable, is an actual instance, 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 277 

drawn from common life. What we are now seeking for 
is a mild stimulus to the mind, arising from the whimsical 
alliance of human sentiments, and modes of action, with 
the habits and physical peculiarities of the inferior orders. 
To listen to the fox and the crow, in parley ; or the wolf and 
the crane ; or the lion and the ass ; and each adhering, with 
dramatic propriety, to its actual propensities, while it per- 
sonatesan analogous human character, excites a pleasurable 
surprise, and quickens that sense of analogy which leads 
on, insensibly, toward abstraction, and reasoning. 

The distinctive characters of animals, in fact, bear such 
an analogy to the varieties of human character as has, in all 
ages, suggested the mythic form of instructions, and such 
as imparts to Fable a degree of fixedness, or one might say 
authenticity, which hardly admits of its being disturbed. 
The relative dispositions and habits of the bee and the wasp, 
of the dog and the wolf, and the fox, and the moral pictu- 
resqueness of the temper which we attribute to the ass, the 
magpie, the parrot, the viper, the owl, the jackall, the ape, 
are such as to force themselves upon our notice, as samples 
of humanity in caricature. The first stirring of intellectu- 
ality in a people, as they emerge from barbarism, shows 
itself by catching at these same analogies ; and what is 
true of a nation in its infancy, is true of childhood itself; 
for the mind no sooner opens than it seizes upon those very 
resemblances, and nourishes itself with them. The usage 
of employing the iEsopian Fable in the conveyance of 
languages, must be considered as well adapted for secur- 
ing several ends ; inasmuch as while it affords a sparkling 
entertainment, of the sort we are now speaking of, it brings 
together, almost exclusively, the descriptive portion of 
language, an early familiarity with which is in itself, as we 
have said, highly important. 

The analogies embodied in national proverbs, apo- 
thegms, and colloquial maxims of prudence, though of a 

34 



278 HOME EDUCATION : 

different kind, are not to be neglected. Such of them as 
embody a sentiment which in itself is intelligible to chil- 
dren, are proper for stimulating their perception of relation- 
ship. Without any desecration, the Proverbs of Solomon 
may be had recourse to for this very purpose ; that is to 
say, those of them that turn upon a figure ; for a large 
proportion are merely didactic affirmations, or laconic ex- 
pressions of the general results of experience. But there 
are more than a few that are at once tropical, and intelli- 
gible, even to a young child ; and they may be propounded 
as riddles, to be solved by whoever of the circle can do so 
the soonest, and the most correctly. It may be asked, for 
example — • 

Why the way of the slothful man is as a hedge of thorns 1 

Or, on what account it may be said that envy is the rottenness of the 

bones ? 
Why is a sluggard to him that sendeth him like smoke to the eyes, and as 

vinegar to the teeth ? or 
Who is it that scattereth, and yet increaseth ? and 
Who that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty ? 
Who is it that maketh himself rich, andjyethath nothing? and who maketh 

himself poor, yet hath great riches ? 
How is it that he who ruleth his spirit, is better than he that taketh a city ? 
Why had one better meet a bear bereaved of her whelps, than a fool hi- 

his folly ? 
Why are the words of a talebearer as wounds ? 
How is wine a mocker ? 
How is it that poverty comes upon the slothful as one that travelleth, and want 

as an armed man ? 

Pithy national proverbs usually involve wit, as well as 
mere analogy ; and therefore, when this condiment is not 
of too refined a species, they quicken the faculties so much 
the more effectively. The teacher may easily make his 
selection (always under the guidance of good taste) and he 
will find some of the best for this purpose among the popu- 
lar adages of the Spaniards : — a laconic and indolent peo- 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 279 

pie, of vivid imagination, are the most fond of this kind of 
ready-coined and cheap wisdom. 

Pointed instances, embodying some general abstract 
truth, are not strictly to be classed with analogies ; but as 
they here fall in our way, they may be mentioned as afford- 
ing a similar exercise to the opening mind. — A burned 
child dreads the fire, is a plain affirmation, which will be 
understood as nothing more, unless it be adduced on some 
occasion when the terms require to be converted, to agree 
with the facts : as if, when one had just fallen into the 
water. 

The brief apologue, extended and converted into alle- 
gory, affords an excellent means of stimulating ingenuity, 
and curiosity, at once, on the ground of analogy. Many 
well known specimens of this sort of literature are accessi- 
ble in every family ; nor need they be named. But I 
would recommend to the teacher, who may have sufficient 
fertility of invention, and command of language for the pur- 
pose, to indulge himself — or I should now say herself, at 
times, such as the idle twilight half hour, when she is im- 
portuned for " a story," in attempting a sort of familiar 
prosopopeia, embodying the characteristics of nature : — 
such as the seasons, or the months singly — or day and 
night ; or the continents ; or the broad features of differ- 
ent countries may be depicted in allegorical language. 
Some happy instances of this kind are found in the Even- 
ings at Home ; and, may I add, in the Contributions of 
Q. Q. I have seen the eyes of children of four years old 
sparkling with the liveliest pleasure, whilst listening to the 
extemporaneous inventions of this sort, and whilst each 
was endeavouring to be the first of the circle to decipher 
the mystery. Allegorical exhibitions of the virtues and 
vices are neither so attractive, nor so intelligible, to chil- 
dren, as those which embody physical appearances. 

These entertainments are for children ; that is to say, 



280 home education: 

for those who belong to our second stage of culture. If 
we have to do with the next era of early life, exercises of 
a different sort are to be had recourse to ; and for finding 
such, as related to the subject now before us, I should 
open our standard poets. But let the teacher clearly keep 
in view what it is we are in quest of; and it is not — the 
higher and principal elements of poetry, but rather certain 
of its subsidiary ingredients ; — particularly those phrases 
the beauty of which turns upon figures, and such figures as 
bring together some point of harmony between the natural 
and the moral, or intellectual world. With this intention 
we need not look beyond the pages of Milton and Shak- 
speare : indeed there is a real advantage in keeping the 
minds of young persons within certain boundaries. By 
use and familiarity with Milton's style of analogy, and with 
that of Shakspeare, dissimilar as they are, a greater readi- 
ness is acquired in catching, with precision, the force of 
each new allusion. 

Some passage, selected on account of its richness in 
figurative analogies, having been read, each figure it con- 
tains is to be analyzed, in its turn. An ordinary measure 
of imaginative feeling is enough for conducting an exercise 
of this sort. Young persons whose spontaneous tastes, 
and whose love of nature have not been spoiled by forcing 
upon them the pedantry of a factitious admiration of the 
imagery of Greek and Latin poetry, are the most likely to 
relish, and to understand, the figurative style of our 
own poets. A boy, thoroughly drilled in the classics, 
would be reminded of nothing but " the goddess Aurora " 
in the lines — 

Now morn her rosy step in th' eastern clime 
Advancing, sow'd the earth with orient pearl— 

and in catching this allusion, he would probably lose all 
the richness of the language. But if there be no such ar» 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 281 

tificial pre-occupation of the mind by the hackneyed mytho- 
logy of Greece, then the figures produce their full effect ; 
and each clause fills the imagination with a conception of 
natural beauty. In innumerable places the adult reader, 
whose sense has been cloyed with often repeated phrases, 
cannot without difficulty realize the pleasures of a fresh 
seen and splendid analogy. In opening therefore the path 
to such enjoyments, for the young, we should endeavour 
to go back to the unblunted sensations of youth, and giving 
indulgence to every unsophisticated feeling, should kindle 
those of our hearers. It will be easy for the well-inform- 
ed teacher to select lines or passages which, by contrast or 
alliance of subject, may serve to enhance the effect, one 
of the other, as if the one just quoted were compared 
with this — 

for the sun 

Declined, was hasting now with prone career 
To th' ocean isles ; and in the ascending scale 
Of heaven, the stars that usher evening rose. — 

Metaphors are to be distinguished from analogical 
phrases ; and in exercises such as we are speaking of, 
they less directly serve to concentrate the mind upon the 
allied ideas : as — 

Thither came Uriel, gliding through the even 
On a sunbeam, swift as a shooting star 
In autumn thwarts the night. 

The propriety and beauty of the comparison may in- 
deed be perceived, and admired ; but the feeling so excit- 
ed wants point and suddenness. The passage following 
Uriel's return — 

On that bright beam whose point now raised— 

— offers, in each line, an analogic phrase entirely fit for the 
purpose we have in view : 

34* 



282 HOME education : 

twilight gray- 
Had in her sober livery all things clad. 

all but the wakeful nightingale r 

She all night long her am'rous descant sung; 
Silence was pleased : now glowed the firmament 
With livid sapphires : Hesperus that led 
The starry host, rode brightest till the moon, 
Rising in clouded majesty, at length, 
Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light, 
And o'er the dark her silver mantle threw. 

When the intention is only, and in general, to awaken 
and cherish poetic tastes, a continuous reading, without an 
analysis in detail, is the method best adapted to secure this 
end ; but with our particular purpose in view, each phrase 
must be dissected ; and the allusion elliptically conveyed 
in it, must be traced home. Shakspeare will be found to 
afford materials more precisely such as we now want, than 
Milton ; and as in fact very many of his figurative lines 
sound, to young persons, at a first hearing, like enigmas, 
the discernment of the analogy, when it actually breaks 
upon the mind, is attended with a still more vivid feeling. 
Precisely the sort of compressed metaphor, or dense anal- 
ogy, which we are in search of is contained in innumerable 
lines of Shakspeare — such as, 

O constancy, be strong upon my side ! 

Set a huge mountain 'tween my heart and tongue. 

Or, 

Be not fond 
To think that Caesar bears such rebel blood, 
That will be thawed from the true quality 
With that which melteth fools. 

That mixture of figures which, as in these very lines, makes 
the most abrupt transitions from the moral or intellectual 
world, to the natural, and which is condemned as a fault in 
inferior writers, recommends Shakspeare as adapted to our 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 2S3 

immediate purpose ; inasmuch as these sudden turns afford 
at once a better trial of ingenuity, and convey more plea- 
sure, when they are at length understood. If, in the same 
context, passages occur wherein a single analogy is slowly 
developed, and with an amplitude of phrases, the occasion 
should not be lost for varying the exercise ; so it is in this 
place of Julius Caesar — 

But I am constant as the northern star .... 

where the sublimity of the comparison, and its fitness, 
unite to stimulate the imagination. It is chiefly in the 
speeches and soliloquies of Shakspeare's meditative per- 
sonages, that what we are in the search of is to be found in 
the greatest abundance : as for instance — Hamlet, King 
Richard II.,* and Jaques ;"f" or if we are not afraid of 
descending to the lower ground of broad humour, the com- 
pany at the Boar's Head, Eastcheap, will not fail to supply 
a full measure of enigmatic analogies. And here I must 
boldly profess the opinion that, as to its bearing upon the 
moral culture of young persons, we gain nothing by the 
squeamishness which would banish and denounce Sir John 
Falstaff, and Bardolph : it is not thus that young minds 
are debilitated ; rather are they invigorated by that liberty 
and excursiveness of thought which is promoted by tra- 
versing all regions, keeping clear only of the precincts of 
voluptuousness and of pseudo-refinement. Far better is 
it, in my mind, to allow young people to laugh at the up- 
roarious humour of Mrs. Quickly's guests, than to let 

* If the teacher would prefer to confine himself to a single play, and to put 
his pupils into thorough possession of Shakspeare's manner, by leading them, 
again and again, over the same ground, King Richard II. would perhaps 
serve this purpose better than any other. With the " Family Shakspeare" 
is hand, the most careful teacher need fear little. 

"t As You Like It, is rich in the same material. The banished Duke's vein 
is of like quality in this behalf, with that of Jaques. 



284 HOME EDUCATION : 

them sip Circe's cup from the hand of certain of our mo- 
dern poets. 

But if the teacher pleases, and if he will employ a little 
leisure in preparing an index of places, he may find, in the 
works of our great dramatist, an endless variety of passages 
in which the analogies turn purely upon circumstances of 
external nature : and it may be well to put Milton and 
Shakspeare in parallel columns, when they are found em- 
ploying the same materials ; as for example, in collating 
the moonlight and starlight of the one, with those of the 
other. — 



How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank ! 

— — Look how the floor of heaven 

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold. 



I hope, in the end, to convince my reader, that I am not 
at all disposed to disparage the acquirement of languages, 
or to slacken in the least the zeal of scholar-like profi- 
ciency ; but assuredly I would make it a condition of such 
pursuits that the mother-tongue should, sooner or later, 
be mastered, and in the most absolute and comprehensive 
manner. Now this involves far more than a mere ac- 
quaintance with all the authorized words of the language ; 
and more, too, than a good measure of skill in etymologi- 
cal researches, or the ability to hunt a syllable from 
" Babel into Noah's ark ; " and more than a nice percep- 
tion of excellence in style : — all the points of erudite and 
literary proficiency are important in their place and time. 
But beyond and above all this, what is wanted — though too 
seldom regarded, or actually conveyed, in a course of 
education, is — The knowledge and command of Language 
(the English Language to wit,) considered at once as the 
engine of thought, and as the record of all ideas, notions, 
and feelings, belonging to the human mind. To effect this 



THE SENSE OF ANALOGY. 285 

important object completely, there is needed, what has not 
as yet, so far as I know, been attempted ; I mean a compre- 
hensive classification of language — say our own, on a 
rationally logical principle. The labour of so reducing 
an entire vocabulary to orders, genera, and species, and 
in a manner fully subserving the several purposes that 
should be kept in view would not be light : — although the 
task is by no means a desperate one. Meantime an 
intelligent teacher may very easily, for himself, and his 
pupils, make some experiments in this way, the result of 
which will amply reward the pains and time bestowed upon 
them. 

In the last chapter some examples were offered of the 
way in which the learner might be exercised in collecting 
descriptive words and phrases, and in putting them in ap- 
position ; and on another occasion I shall have to insist 
upon the advantages that may be derived from a similar 
treatment of the abstract terms of the language. At pre- 
sent, some samples are offered of the way in which the tro- 
pical and analogical terms of the language may be gather- 
ed into clusters, and exhibited in their natural relationship. 
These exercises, set a-going by the teacher, are easily con- 
tinued, enlarged, and repeated, by the learner. 

The habit we wish to form is that which enables the 
mind to grasp the compass of language, in its different 
bearings ; or to take it up, over and over again, on differ- 
ent sides : as first, in its simplest form, and as the repre- 
sentative of the vast variety of our perceptions of the exter- 
nal world , and in the next place, as the same words, or a 
large portion of them, have been transfused, and rendered 
available for expressing intellectual, moral, and abstruse 
notions, by the aid of real or imagined analogies. Now the 
subjoined examples are to be considered as nothing more 
than random instances, upon which the teacher may easily 
improve ; and which serve merely to exhibit the principle 



286 home education: 

above stated. In truth, intelligent young persons, after a 
very little practice, will find no difficulty in chalking out 
similar exercises for themselves. 

It might be required, for example, to collect all the more 
usual words, expressive of Motion ; whether mechanical, 
as of solids — fluids — air, or gases : or spontaneous, as of 
animals and man ; and then, instances are to be adduced of 
the analogical use of each of these terms,* as thus : — 

Move. A motive is what moves the mind, in each particular instance. 
I would have had them writ more movingly. 

Quick. She being more quick of sight, and he of understanding, did 
quicken the boy's faculties, bodily and mental. 

Slow. Oh slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. 
„ f By habit and exercise the operations of the mind acquire 

' } velocity ; but by indulgence, the passions get too much 
f momentum. 

Accelerate. The great acceleration of business now present, maketh 
great inconvenience in time to come. 

Retard. Metaphysics have retarded the progress of real knowledge. 

Direct. Direct, or indirectly then, to answer all in one. 

Oblique. He gave, at least obliquely, the first offence. 

Rebound. The imputation which he cast, rebounds upon himself. 

Revolve. Betaking himself to retirement, he there revolved his purposes 
of ambition. 

Whirl. Those seldom know their own hearts who live in the whirl of busi- 
ness or pleasure. 

Twirl. Like a light feather twirl me round about, and leave me in mine 
own low state again. 

Twist. You twist my meaning, I had no such intention. 

Circulate. This piece of news has been industriously circulated on 
ail sides. 

Roll. The interests of the commonwealth roll from their proper lodge- 
ments. 

Slide. As often as he is pressed by sound argument, he slides from the 
question. 

Turn. Who shall turn me from my purpose ? 

Rise, f He rose by a bold ambition ; and fell by it too : and having 

Fall. < once lost his influence over his adherents, sunk to rise no 

Sink. (. more. 

* If the learner have sufficient acquaintance with our literature, the in* 
stances should all be drawn from the best writers. 



ANALOGICAL TERMS. 287 

Motion of Fluids :— 



Billow. I Tossed upon the billows of misfortune, he became the sport of 

Wave. \ every wave. 

Current, f 

Tide. The strong current of opinion now sets in acontrary direction J 

Stream. J and who shall turn the tide? it is a mighty stream which 

**bb. flows, and will flow, till the ebbing time comes on. 

Flow. [ 

Rise. Owing to the pouring in of demands for manufactured goods, there 

was a sudden rise in the price of all raw materials. 
Fall. The influx of strangers occasioned a fall in the wages of labour. 
Sink. — Subside. The excitement of the public mind on this question, sub* 

sides daily, and will soon have sunk to its ordinary leVeli 
Deluge. The literature of the times was deluged by pamphlets on this 

subject. 
Rush. Only allow the passions of the populace to find an outlet, at this 

point, and there will be a rush, which will carry all before it. 
Pour. Let us endeavour to pour consolation into the wounded spirit. 
Drop. With due caution, we may drop a word of advice, where we cannot 

give counsel in a formal manner. 
Distil. My word shall distil as the dew. 
Spout. He has a volubility that enables him to spout, as long as he can find 

any to listen. 
Sprinkle. His discourse was plentifully sprinkled with classical quota* 

tions. 
Spirt. The malice of his heart spirts from his tongue. 
Plunge. He got out of his depth when he plunged into these subjects. 

It is enough just to indicate the mode of carrying on 
such exercises. To the above would naturally succeed 
the words that are expressive of motion, change, and 
agitation, in the atmosphere : such as — wind, storm, hur- 
ricane, commotion, eddy, breeze, gale; and the verbs — 
to expand, to explode, to exhale, to waft, to ruffle; and 
twenty more, each of which is ordinarily employed in an 
analogical sense. 

The spontaneous motions of living beings would come 
next, such as — run, fly, swim, walk, creep, jump, leap, 
spring, start, climb, advance, retire, recede, slide, sidle, 
waddle, bow, cringe, stumble, strike, rap, lift, knock, bear, 



288 HOME EDUCATION : 

carry, bring, fetch ; and then again, the specific actions of 
artificial life, as — build, overturn, divide, shape, grind, 
crush, split, shake, hammer, saw, bore, pierce, stick, sew, 
cobble, mend, cover, break, gild, varnish, paint, engrave, 
adorn, deface, press, draw, shift, throw, roll, wrap ; and 
some hundreds of the like kind, every one of which sub- 
serves the uses of the speaker and writer, in a sense, or 
in several senses, removed, by one or two degrees, from 
its primitive significance. 

In like manner, we may go on to assemble, for example 
—all words related to light and darkness, to combustion, 
to the growth and decay of vegetables ; and again of 
animals. Each of the senses also, confining ourselves to 
those words that relate immediately to the perceptive 
faculty, affords its set of terms, which, again, are made 
convertible to the more recondite purposes of moral and 
intellectual communication. Thus : — 

Belonging to the Eve— -we have, and in a metaphoric sense — to see, discern, 
descry, contemplate, gaze upon ; and the words — conspicuous, perspicu- 
ous, luminous, clear, obscure, distinct, manifest. 

Belonging to the Ear — To hear, hearken, listen, attend, to be deaf. 

Belonging to the Touch — To feel, handle, blunt, sharpen, to be rough, 
smooth, slippery, hard, soft, obtuse, harsh, abrupt, 'broken, im- 
penetrable, untractaDle, obdurate, stiff, pliable, warm, cold, chilling, 
tickling. 

Belonging to the Taste — Sweet, bitter, sour, acrid, pungent, sharp, cloy- 
ing, luscious, crude, loathsome, delicious. 

Belonging to the Smell — Fragrant, stifling, putrescent, grateful. 

It is manifest that a well-digested collection of physical 
terms, or words indicative of the principal elements of our 
bodily consciousness, and of the great features of the 
material world, would serve the purpose of collecting into 
groups, the entire vocabulary of intellectual and moral dis- 
course ; and then, if each term, considered in its natural 
connexion, that is to say, its relation to other words of 
kindred original import, were exemplified, not in one or 



ANALOGICAL TERMS. 289 

two instances only, but in five or six; if this were done, a 
mind so trained would in fact have gone over the wide 
field of human nature, as to its recondite elements. 

In the preceding chapter I directed the reader's attention 
to the two distinct but combined purposes, of conferring on 
the learner — first, a knowledge and command of language, 
and then, a knowledge, intimate and precise, of the phe- 
nomena of the material world, by the means of language, 
which, in fact, is a record of those appearances. And now, 
if we wish to pass inward, toward the world of mind, and 
open to the learner the abyss of the human bosom, or if we 
would make a preparation, ample and exact, for the study 
of mental philosophy, what course can be taken so natural, 
so simple, so easy, so efficacious and comprehensive, as 
that of bringing the entire compass of analogical terms 
which constitute the record of mental phenomena, under 
an orderly review ? And we attempt this, not on the 
ground of some questionable theory of intellectual science ; 
but by merely taking up and examining — one by one, and 
in their natural relationships, all those primitives, whence 
the human mind has actually drawn the means for express- 
ing the wide variety of its abstract notions, and of its feel- 
ings. This, I am humbly of opinion, is the best initiation 
in metaphysics ; or in what is better than metaphysics — a 
genuine knowledge of the workings of the human mind: 
and I am sure that the process is of a kind that may be 
made inviting to all who are really susceptible of intellectual 
culture. 

Along with exercises such as the above, and in the 
course of the analogies which we trace, connecting the 
primary with the intellectual sense of words, it will be well 
to mix such as consist in the analysis of those terms, of 
this same class, which have long since dropped their pri- 
mitive significance, and which now suggest no idea but 
25 



290 HOME EDUCATION i 

the one that has been superinduced. Thus, we never re- 
collect the primitive ideas to which the etymology of the 
words consider, meditate, apprehend, would lead us ; and 
yet it is useful (entirely apart from the cultivation of etymo- 
logical acumen) to unravel the knot, or, shall we rather 
say, to break the shell of derivative terms, so as to dis- 
cover the natural analogy whence they may have borrowed 
their elements. The very same faculty — the sense of 
analogy, is stimulated by this different process. 

Intellectual and moral derivative terms might be ar- 
ranged with a view to our immediate purpose, under three 
heads ; the first, comprising those which still retain, in full 
force, their primitive import ; and which are only borrowed 
on occasions when they are to be applied to the conveyance 
of abstract notions : such are several of the words speci- 
fied in the foregoing lists, as sprinkle, spout, leap ; and, 
such as — dabble, grapple, run, stand, hold ; or the epi- 
thets — lofty, low, broad, deep, pointed, blunt. 

The second class would- include the very opposite of 
these ; that is to say, words which have now entirely lost 
their hold of the primitive idea, and which are used purely 
and solely in a mental sense : such are the words — medi- 
tate, consider, ponder, expect, admire ; and — love, wrath, 
melancholy, terror, doubt, ambition. 

The third class comes between these two, and consists 
of terms which are convertible, either to the primitive, or 
to the derivative sense ; or which, in every instance, are 
fixed in a natural, or an intellectual meaning, by the con- 
nexion wherein they stand : such are the words — weigh, 
warm, chill, awaken, pursue, follow, flinch, unbend, relax, 
overwhelm, immerge. 

In an intelligent family, where the best books are read 
and listened to, and where books of reference are always 
at hand, the scrutiny of the analogical sense of words may 
be made a matter of amusement, in the intervals of serious 



ANALOGICAL TERMS. 



291 



study. Or a set of words may be given out on cards, the 
resolution of which, according to every one's ability, is to 
be produced at an appointed time. Even the preparatory 
collection of words, for such exercises, may be given as an 
exercise to the elder children : the principle of the assort- 
ment being first stated ; as thus : — 

Let it be required to produce a list of words, which, al- 
though ordinarily employed in their primitive and natural 
sense, may, without impropriety, be converted to the pur- 
pose of conveying notions belonging to the intellectual and 
moral world : such as (those above-mentioned, under the 
first head, and) the words : — 



{Verbs.) 


(Substantives.) 


(Adjectives.) 


Illuminate 


Heart 


Sweet 


Darken 


Bile 


Sour 


Prop 


Stomach 


Bitter 


Bolster 


Spleen 


Acrid 


Undermine 


Marrow 


Crude 


Devour 


Hand 


Sharp 


Digest 


Handle 


Light 


Handle 


Branch 


Heavy 


Tread 


Root 


DuK 


Sift 


Stock 


Quick 


Winnow 


Shoot 


Slow 


Harrow 


Germ 


Shining 


Plough 


Seed 


Empty 


Dig 


Graft 


Full 


Sow 


Kernel 


Rich 


Reap 


Fruit 


Poor 



Or — give a list of words of intellectual or moral import, 
which, although manifestly derived from natural ideas, no 
longer recall their etymology, or suggest any but a purely 
mental notion ; such as (the instances named above, un- 
der the second head, or) the words : — 



(Verbs.) 


(Substantives.) 


(Adjectives.) 


Examine 


Pride 


Sincere 


Discuss 


Diligence 


Cordial 



292 



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( Verbs.) 


(Substantives.) 


(Adjectives.) 


Exaggerate 


Vigilance 


Suspicious 


Excuse 


Caution 


Crafty 


Induce 


Valour 


Jealous 


Conduce 


Virtue 


Wary 


Cogitate 


Acuteness 


Circumspect 


Speak 


Sagacity 


Witty 


Argue 


Energy 


Alert 


Quarrel 


Wisdom 


Prudent 



Or again :-^-Let the task be to produce a set of words, 
which, in their ordinary use, stand evenly related to the 
material, and the immaterial worlds ; and which must take 
their actual sense always from the connexion where they 
are found ; such as (the words mentioned above as exam- 
ples under the third head, or) these ; — 



( Verbs.) 


(Substantives.) 


(Adjectives.) 


Culture 


Force 


Firm 


Reflect 


Tenacity 


Pure 


Strengthen 


Capacity 


Simple 


Weaken 


Compass 


Volatile 


Recall 


Object 


Languid 


Listen 


Matter 


Vital 


See. 


Substance 


Mortal 


Feel 


Form 


Smooth 


Taste- 


Gravity 


Rough 


Hurt 


Levity 


Dazzling 


Rend 


Continuity 


Brilliant 


Heal 


Extent 


Obscure 



Lists of this kind, as is manifest, may be multiplied and 
varied almost without end ; and they may be prepared, at 
different times, on different principles of association. The 
next part of the intended process consists in the analysis of 
each word in turn ; or the tracing the analogy which seems, 
in the first instance, to have suggested the application of 
the material idea to an abstruse notion. And, in conduct- 
ing such an analysis, it is not an erudite historical inquiry 
into etymologies, that should be attempted ; but merely 



ANALOGICAL TERMS. 293 

the discovery of the spontaneous course of the human 
mind, in devising the means of oral communication, on 
subjects impalpable and invisible. Two or three examples 
of this sort of scrutiny will be enough to explain the 
method intended : — a method readily pursued by any 
teacher of ordinary intelligence and acquirements. In 
truth, young persons of active minds need only to be 
set off in this way, and they will go on with very little 
guidance. 

Disappoint. A point, punctum, is the centre or fixing 
spot, at which, by means of a sharp instrument, any thing 
is held to its place. Ap is ad — to. Dis means separation, 
division, partition; and so expresses the negative of what 
is positive in the word to which it is affixed ; like the sign 
— minus, in algebraic notation To dis-ap-point is there- 
fore to unfix that which had been fastened to its place. 

Ambition. Am — x<*<pi, round-about: ire, to go. The 
highest honours and emoluments, for which there are 
always many competitors, and which are therefore watched 
and guarded by many eager expectant eyes, are not, like 
the common goods of life, and which are the objects of in- 
dustry, to be obtained, at once, and in a straightforward 
course, by whoever will take the trouble to seek them ; but 
by such a-going round-about, as shall escape the notice 
of others, until the aspirant has nearly attained his object. 

Industry. Struo, Zrpua, to spread, pile, prepare: in- 
(J us — intus, within: — the providing, preparing and spread- 
ing out in order, whatever is needed for the comfort of a 
family. 

Meditate. (According to etymologists, from the Greek 
ju.sX.erxv, pefoi.) But probably from mid — middle, and sto, 
stare, to stand ; or, come to a stand, in the midst of any 
business, as if to recollect oneself. 

Cogitate. Cogo, drive together, or assemble; co, to- 
gether, ago, to drive; and perhaps, as above, involving 

25* 



294 home education: 

the Latin sto , stare ; as if cogitare were cogi-stare, and 
cogito cogi-sto. 

The many English words that are compounded from the 
Latin dux, a leader, and ducere, to lead, may afford easy 
exercises, almost to the youngest children, who have made 
any proficiency, in language : and if they have been remind- 
ed of the meaning of the several affixes— in, intro, con, 
pro, de, se, ad, re — they will find amusement in tracing the 
primitive ideas, whence have come the meaning of the 
words — induce, introduce, conduce, produce, deduce, se- 
duce, adduce, reduce. 

The exercise may sometimes be confined to words of 
Greek origin ; sometimes to those of Latin derivation ; 
and at others, to the Saxon or German, by which means 
the process may be adapted to learners of different de- 
gress of proficiency : and in truth, it is a general rule, that 
every species of classification has its use, in giving the 
mind a readiness in the orderly and instantaneous dis- 
posal of its stores. Let it be required to trace to their 
natural origin the words — 



(English.) 


(Latin.) 


(Greek.) 


Love 


Examine 


Melancholy 


Hate 


Excuse 


Hypocrisy 


Wrath 


Consider 


Idolatry 


Speak 


Edify 


Grumble 


Strive 


Construct 


Babble 


Break 

Shall 


Inform 

Voluntary 


Mix 
Will— would 



The last word on this list, the monosyllable will, with its 
preterite and conditional, would, may be taken as an 
instance of derivation from very simple circumstances, 
where there is the least appearance of composition, or of 
artificial construction in a word itself, poo^y, council, or a 
deliberate determination, formed after a hearing of reasons, 
becomes, by a customary change of the initial letten 



ANALOGICAL TERMS. 295 

woulee (in Latin volo) which easily slides into — will and 
tcould. But fiovXri itself is from /3«aa», to cast; — or, in 
this connection, to ballot, or throw the bean, or the ball, 
into the vase or voting box, after a question has been duly 
debated. I will — emphatically pronounced, means then 
— I have considered all that may be said on the point of 
conduct in question ; and I now vote, or ballot, according- 
ly: my resolution is taken. 

Few persons, perhaps, among those engaged in educa- 
tion, are fully aware either of the great and various ad- 
vantages resulting from a thoroughly digested and compre- 
hensive knowledge of our own language, or of the ease with 
which such an acquirement may be made. On this ground 
far more might be achieved than is often attempted ; nor 
should I fear to abide by the issue of a series of experi- 
ments, adapted to the purpose of exhibiting the compara- 
tive practical efforts, on the one side, of an elaborate clas- 
sical education, reaching its acme, let us say, in the pro- 
duction of some faultless Greek verses ; and, on the other 
side, of an education purely English ; but so managed as 
to lodge the entire compass of the mother-tongue in the 
mind, on a philosophically digested system, and as related, 
first to the several faculties of the rnind, and secondly, to 
the specific uses of active and professional life. My firm 
belief is that the balance, as to power over the minds of 
others, and as to practical efficiency, in carrying on the 
mind's own operations, would turn decisively in favour of 
the latter method: but in fact the two are not incompatible. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE ANALOGICAL FEELING AND HABIT, PREPARATORY TO THE 

EXPANSION OF THE ABSTRACTIVE AND REASONING 

FACULTIES. 

We come now to what must be called, not indeed a 
resting place ; but rather a turning point, in the course of 
Intellectual Culture. It is essential to the successful 
application of the system I am endeavouring to unfold, that 
this crisis of the principle which follows nature, in devel- 
oping the faculties, should be clearly understood. 

Every one is conscious of two perfectly distinct states 
of the mind, occupying it at different times : (we are now 
speaking of what is intellectual merely) in one of these 
states an object, or an idea, is presented to the mind, 
which, whether it wills or not, and always without any sen- 
sible effort, admits the idea, and discerns its relationship 
to any others with which it may stand connected. This 
may be called Intuition ; and with intuition nature has 
intimately connected various simple emotions of pleasure, 
or of curiosity, the effect of which is to stimulate the 
mind, during its growing time especially, and to lead it on- 
ward always in the path of knowledge. In the way of 
simple intuition, skilfully superintended, the mind may not 
only be replenished with ideas, in vast variety, but may be 
put into a condition the most favourable possible for ad- 
vancing on the more arduous part of its course. 

But beside this intuition, and on the ground of it, the 
mind gradually acquires the power of fixing itself upon a 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 297 

certain series of ideas ; and along with this power, it feels, 
in greater or less degrees, an active desire to do so. 
Hence comes effort and labour, directed to particular ends, 
and to means fit for the achievement of those ends ; and 
hence all those fruits of intellectual enterprise which con- 
stitute the immeasurable odds between the savage and the 
civilized condition of human life ; or between the child 
and the man. 

The process of education naturally divides itself there- 
fore into two portions, corresponding with this partition of 
our mental existence, into the Intuitive, and the Active : 
or, in other words, education should be made to accord 
with the distinction between Perception, and Power — be- 
tween the Accumulative and the Operative faculties ; the 
former being the earliest expanded, and the latter the 
latest ; yet the development of the one going on long after 
that of the others has come into full course. 

To the first, that is the accumulative, or intuitive facul- 
ties, we have already given some attention, while suggest- 
ing hints for the culture of the Conceptive faculty, and of 
the Sense of Resemblance, and Analogy. Next should 
come the training of those faculties, which imply more or 
less of conscious effort, and which, by their different de- 
grees of activity, quickly render conspicuous the original 
difference between mind and mind, as to Power. These 
faculties of labour are, as I have enumerated them already 
— the Memory, the faculty of Abstraction, and the ratioci- 
native faculty. 

But, anxious as I am to insure the reader's attention to 
the broad, and very important distinction, above stated, I 
have thought it best to conclude the present volume at the 
point where the one process of culture should be succeeded 
by the other : — the ends aimed at in the two, and the 
methods of procedure, being, for the most part, very dis- 
similar. What now remains, and which is the subject of 



298 



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this concluding chapter, is to say something of that prin- 
ciple of transition which, in conformity with the constitu- 
tion of the human mind, leads on, almost insensibly, from 
the culture of the Intuitive, to the exercise of the Opera- 
tive faculties. 

Lord Bacon (and Rochefoucauld — in his peculiar and 
sinister style) has affirmed, what may well be granted, that 
men, individually, and collectively, might accomplish far 
more than they actually attempt, or even think of, did they 
but fully know, and steadily employ, the powers conferred 
upon the human mind. And moreover it may be said that 
far more might be achieved by each individual, whatever 
be his native endowments, if only, in the early training of 
the reason, the working of the active faculties were de- 
layed until after the intuitive faculties had largely gathered 
in materials. The difference between working with a 
fund of ideas, and working for a fund, is a circumstance 
on which depends the healthy growth, or the early stunting 
of the mind. In the ordinary course of education, the 
minds of children are strained and stimulated upon inani- 
tion. Labour comes first ; feasting afterwards (if ever). 
But in the intellectual world the rule does not hold — He 
that will not work, neither let him eat : but rather this-^- 
The labourer must first be partaker of the fruits. 

An expression frequently applied to the over anxious 
endeavours of some teachers to impart universal informa- 
tion — that it is a cramming the mind, properly attaches, 
with its implied rebuke, to those methods which subvert 
what is I think, the natural order of mental culture : — that 
is to say, which bring a great stress to bear upon the 
powers, before the perceptions have been furnished with 
their proper objects and aliment. No mind can fairly be 
said to have been crammed with that information which, 
how various soever or extensive it may be, has been all 
Imbibed spontaneously, and unconsciously ; or just as the 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 299 

body admits fluids, in large quantities, through the absorb- 
ents. Now, if my meaning in the latter portion of this 
volume has been understood, it will be admitted that, by 
skilfully addressing ourselves to the intuitive faculties 
alone, and these gently stimulated by pleasurable emotions, 
the minds of children may be put in a condition to which 
we might fairly apply the phrase — intellectual opulence. 
This wealth is not indeed in itself power ; but it is the 
means of 'power. And now I beg the reader's attention 
while I point out the first steps of the mind's gradual ad- 
vance from wealth to power : and by power, in this in- 
stance, I mean — first, the ability to apprehend or admit 
truth, and which redeems a man from ignorance, prejudice, 
and illusion ; secondly, the power to convey truth, which 
confers upon whoever possesses it a real authority over 
those immediately around him ; and lastly, the power to 
discover truth, which gives to a few minds a rightful do- 
minion over the many, and a dominion which endures 
from age to age. 

Many and various operations of the mind, not now to be 
particularly described, are comprehended in the ordinary 
sense of the word reasoning ; such as — the devising of 
means for discovering obscure or abstruse facts — the in- 
vention, and the most proper disposal of arguments, so as 
shall best bring others over to our opinion ; and — the 
compacting of facts in an inferential order, so as may 
really justify such and such conclusions. 

Meantime the elements of the mental process on which 
every sort of reasoning rests, are of a very simple 
sort ; and they imply two powers of perception, or two 
species of intuition, the one being an enlargement or ex- 
pansion of the other, and involving more of active force. 
Every sort of reasoning is reducible to a series of percep- 
tions — instantaneous, and involuntary, and amounting to 
this — That two things or notions are the same, or are not 



300 HOME EDUCATION : 

the same ; or that they stand in such or such a relation, 
one to the other. When one such relation of sameness or 
of difference, or of proportion, has been accepted by the 
mind, then comes another set, or, we may better say- — 
brace of relationships, taking hold of the preceding one by 
some similar link of sameness or proportion : and to this 
perhaps succeeds a third, in like manner linked to its im- 
mediate predecessor. 

In this process there is, as we have said, firSt — the in- 
tuition in regard to two single objects ; and secondly, an 
intuition in regard to the series of intuitions. Now, even 
the power to admit the simple intuition, or rudiment of rea- 
soning, is not always found apart from some culture and 
practice ; and many minds never reach so far as to this 
point. But the power to admit, and the power to keep a 
hold of the second sort of intuitions, and which is essential 
to what is called a process of reasoning, or an argument, 
is always the result, either of much culture, or of much 
practice ; — it is a power to be acquired. In mathematical 
reasoning we may feel our way, step by step, and go on, as 
it were, blindly, or without any grasping of the entire pro- 
cess : but in every other kind of reasoning, dependent 
upon so ambiguous an instrument as language, there is no 
safety or certainty except in a constant exertion of this 
grasping power ; or, to change the figure — in looking, 
every moment, from end to end of the path we are treading, 
and in taking care that, at every step, we keep the exact 
line. Mathematical reasoning is a going on between two 
walls : moral reasoning is the finding, and the holding to a 
path, over a common. 

As it is not, in this place, my intention to treat the sub- 
ject of reasoning, in a formal manner, I abstain from eluci- 
dations and examples, wishing only to fix the reader's at- 
tention upon the fact, that the rudiment of reasoning, of 
whatever sort, is Intuition ; — intuition simple, and intu- 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 301 

ition complex. This being the case, it is manifest that, in 
eliciting and exercising the sense of resemblance, and in 
giving it acuteness, we are making the true preparation for 
sound reasoning : and further, that, in advancing from the 
sense of resemblance, to the perception of analogy, we are 
leading the mind forward in a course which enables it intu- 
itively to discern those relations of sameness which are of 
a somewhat abstruse kind : such for instance as the same- 
ness of law, or principle, or mode of operation, in the sys- 
tem of nature. 

There are some who reason inconclusively, or con- 
fusedly, because they do not link the series of relations 
well ; or do not retain their hold of the chain in its entire- 
ness ; but there are many more who never reason at all, or 
to no good purpose, simply because the rudimental faculty — 
the first perceptive power, has acquired no precision, no 
tenacity. Such persons may have learned logic, and may 
be able to build, and to knock down, paper-houses of syllo- 
gisms ; but there is no reality, no vitality in the process : — 
they are convinced of nothing by the result of all this la- 
bour ; nor do they find themselves able to produce convic- 
tion in other minds. 

In truth, very much of what is done and taught in the 
course of a common education, tells for little or nothing in 
active life, because, while the after stages of the reasoning 
process have been, with some industry, attended to, the 
preliminary work of training the intuitive faculties has been 
wholly forgotten. In other words, logic may have been 
taught and learned ; but the rudiment of reasoning has not 
been acquired. Now, if one or the other part of this pro- 
cess of culture must be slighted, it were better to neglect 
the latter ; because, apart from the first, the second is ab- 
solutely of no avail ; but if the first has been duly regard- 
ed, the second will follow, almost of itself. Good rea- 
soners and efficient speakers, in relation to the common 

26 



302 HOME EDUCATION : 

interests oflife, are not the proficients in college logic ; but 
they are those who 'are gifted with the keenest and the 
quickest perceptions of relation and analogy. If a man be 
eminently endowed in this manner* his associates and his 
antagonists, and especially the latter, will help him to cor- 
rect his early errors in putting arguments together ; and 
will make him, in the end, he knows not how, an efficient 
reasoner. 

I think it will hardly be denied that if the children of a 
family, gifted in a fair degree with intelligence, were, 
during the course of their education, exercised in the pur- 
suit of analogies, physical and moral, in some stich manner 
as that indicated in the last chapter, they would, in due 
time, stand at no great remove from the ground of exact 
reasoning, and in fact, would spontaneously advance upon 
that ground. The animated feeling that attends the dis- 
cernment of an analogy, quickens the curiosity to pursue 
the connexion of facts a little further, and further still ; and 
such a pursuit is nothing else but reasoning. The pro- 
gression therefore from the simplest perception of resem- 
blance, to the more recondite perception of analogy, and 
thenceforward to the remotest results of elaborate reason- 
ing, is imperceptible, and almost involuntary, and such as 
is sure to take place with minds in any good measure sus- 
ceptible of culture. The process roughly indicated in the 
preceding pages, is, as I firmly believe, what ought to fill the 
first chapter of a genuine logic. 

But now it is an important fact, that, while many con- 
clusions, in all branches of intellectual, moral, and politi- 
cal science, are to be reached only in the circuitous road 
of long and elaborate reasoning, it is altogether otherwise 
with the most momentous first truths ; for these great prin- 
ciples usually lie only at the very next remove from the 
mind's simplest intuitions ; or if not found there, they are 
vainly sought for at the end of refined arguments. Hence 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 303 

it has happened, in relation to such prime truths, that, while 
they are seen and accepted by all unsophisticated minds, 
they have escaped the grasp of subtile reasoners, who, 
spurning what might be obtained without toil, have lost 
what is never to be elicited by its aid. 

Now much need not be said to prove that, in any case 
in which truth stands, as we may say, immediately within 
the line of our intuitions, peculiar importance attaches to 
the culture of that faculty to which such intuitions belong ; 
and that, upon its clearness, vivacity, simplicity, and integ- 
rity, will depend the ready attainment, and the firm posses- 
sion of the most momentous of all our convictions. 
Nothing but perplexity, despondency, vacillation, or what 
is equally to be deprecated, the delusive gratification of 
following endless sophistries, are the consequences of that 
state of mind which results from great activity and acute- 
ness of the ratiocinative powers, along with an equal ob- 
tuseness, or sluggishness, or laxity of the perceptive and 
intuitive faculties. Such minds, doubting whatever is the 
most certain, and trusting to whatever is the most falla- 
cious—ever learning, and never coming to the knowledge 
of the truth, are in the deplorable and hopeless condition 
of one who, with the limbs and vigour of a Samson, have 
lost their eyes. 

I do not know that there is any maxim of intellectual 
education more important, than the one we have now in 
view, and which enjoins that the intuitive faculties should 
be cherished and brought into a state of healthful vivacity 
before the art of ratiocination is meddled with, or hardly 
mentioned. The worst consequences, intellectual and 
moral, are every day to be seen resulting from the con* 
junction of dull, or confused perceptions, with astute and 
subtile dialectic powers ; I feel emboldened therefore in 
attaching more than a little moment to the process of cul- 
ture which it is the object of this work to recommend, and 



304 



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in which sedulous regard is paid to the order of nature, as 
regulating the course of intellectual treatment. To the 
practice of inverting this order ought to be attributed the 
discouraging fact that the most highly educated men have 
often been the last to yield submission to the dictates of 
common sense. 

I will now bring this chapter and volume to a close by 
exemplifying the principle to which I am attaching so 
much importance, as it affects the primary Truth of the 
moral system — the existence and attributes of the Creator 
and Ruler of the Universe. And this subject I may lay 
claim to, belonging, as it does, to intellectual discipline, 
notwithstanding that I disclaim the intention to treat of 
religious education. 

The best works on Natural Theology, and especially 
those that are of recent date, do not consist of a chain of 
reasoning, as it is called, or of a consecutive argument, 
starting from a certain point, and advancing, step by step, 
until the long foreseen conclusion has been legitimately 
attained ; but rather, they present an accumulation, or a 
selected assemblage of independent instances, each having 
the same argumentative value ; and each, in a more or 
less striking manner, presenting the same elements of 
proof, and all possessing a nearly equal logical value. It 
is as when, in corroboration of some alleged fact, twenty, 
or twice twenty witnesses are brought forward, all telling 
substantially the same story. 

The wing of a gnat, considered in relation to the pur- 
poses it actually subserves, contains all the argument 
which we find expanded in massive volumes of Natural 
Theology. Or if we imagine a universal conflagration to 
have reduced to ashes every organized substance on the 
earth's surface — leaving only a single straw, this one 
wreck of animated nature, understood in its structure and 
intention, would be text enough, whence sacred philosophy 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 305 

might draw all its fundamental principles. Nevertheless, 
as the human mind does not often possess the vigour, or 
the condensed power, requisite for founding its convictions 
upon so narrow a basis — however solid that basis may be, 
it is well that we should yield the point of rigid argumen- 
tation, and be content to produce that conviction by repe- 
tition and accumulation of proof, which we might justly 
have enforced by means of a single and conclusive in- 
stance. 

In truth, what is aimed at in works on Natural The- 
ology, is rather impression than formal conviction ; and 
for securing this end it is manifest that five instances are 
better than one, and that twenty are better than five, and 
a hundred better than twenty. A mind must be cold as 
well as severe, that is not more affected by a well com- 
pacted volume of exemplifications of the wisdom and 
goodness of God in creation, than it had been by the 
perusal of the first page, in which the principle of the ar- 
gument is announced. 

But having granted this, we must return to our present 
purpose, and look a little more narrowly to the real nature 
of the proof whence, in modes a thousand ways diversi- 
fied, and gathered from ten thousand sources, is derived 
the momentous inference whereon rests all virtue, all 
truth, all peace, and all hope, for man. 

What is meant by proofs of the power, wisdom, and 
goodness of God, in the construction of the vegetable 
and sentient orders, are so many instances of Analogy, 
connecting, by an instantaneous sympathy, certain ele- 
ments of our own rational consciousness with the attri- 
butes of The Mind Unseen. For example : we find 
ourselves to be endowed with power, which, to a certain 
extent, enables us to alter the position, and to modify the 
influences of the material elements about us ; we also 
possess reason, whereby we conceive of a certain state 
26* 



306 HOME EDUCATION: 

of things as possible, and as desirable, and whereby we 
devise the means fit for giving actual existence to what we 
have so imagined. Moreover, we are conscious of a 
lively pleasure in beholding, and in promoting, the enjoy- 
ments of others ; and this feeling, which we call benevo- 
lence, impels us to exert our power and reason, for the 
good of others. 

Now as often as any thing comes under our observation, 
which appears to be what we might ourselves have effected, 
had our power and skill been equal to the production of it, 
we involuntarily assign it (unless our notions have been 
sophisticated) to the agency of a mind like our own, al- 
though, perhaps, of far superior endowments. It is not 
a process of reasoning that passes through our minds, on 
such occasions : nor do we first lay down certain self- 
evident principles, and then advance, with cautious steps, 
to the inference — That this work of wisdom and benevo- 
lence which we are examining must have had a wise and 
benevolent author : — any such concatenation of inferences 
would confuse the very elements of reason. 

In illustration of this natural process of thought, let any 
one suppose that he has been confined in a chamber 
whence every ray of light is excluded ; and that at length 
he is startled from vacancy of mind, or sleep, by a whisper, 
of which however, at first, he does not distinguish a word, 
or catch the meaning ; nevertheless, the not to be mistaken 
tones of the human voice exclude the possibility of doubt- 
ing that, where he had thought himself alone, another, and 
one like himself, is actually present. He listens, and this 
whisper becomes more audible, and at length he recognizes 
the words — uttered with intelligent intonation — 

Now heaven, in all her glory shone, and rolled 
Her motions, as the great first Mover's hand 
First wheeled their course : earth in her rich atlire 
Consummate, lovely smiled. 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 307 

Now those words, thus feelingly uttered, are enough to 
give him the irresistible persuasion that there is present 
with him in this chamber of darkness, a mind. Whether 
it be lodged in a human or celestial form, he knows not ; 
yet it is a mind ; and it is one which, like his own, holds 
correspondence with language ; it is one, like his own, 
alive to rhythm in the collocation of words ; and, like his 
own, conscious of the rational sequences of ideas, and of 
the fitness of epithets. On the ground of this conviction, 
and especially if the tones of tbe voice be such as are the 
well-known accompaniments of goodness and intelligence, 
he confidently attributes to his unseen companion those 
qualities of intellect, and those dispositions which warrant 
his inviting the freest and the happiest communications. 
That is to say, the mere utterance of these lines has open- 
ed a world of analogies, between his own mind, aad ano- 
ther, really, though not visibly present in the same cham- 
ber. What is necessary in order to his feeling this constant 
persuasion, and for his availing himself of it, is by no 
means the logical ability proper for groping his way through 
a tangle of syllogisms ; but simply — a sound constitution 
of mind ; or just that same reason and feeling in himself, 
of which he has the evidence, as existing in another. 

But now, to extend our supposition a little further, let us 
imagine that, without having obtained any other evidence 
of the presence of a communicable spirit in this chamber 
of darkness, than what has been afforded by the utterance 
of the lines which have fallen on the ear, this same person 
enters into converse with his unseen companion, and tak- 
ing the Miltonic passage he had pronounced as the text of 
the conversation, the two, freely confer on all subjects of 
natural philosophy, discussing and describing the various 
forms of sentient and vegetable life, as well as the prin- 
ciples of chemical combination, and the mechanism of the 
heavens. By this time then a complete correspondence 



308 home education: 

has been opened between whatever is rational in the one 
mind, and whatever is rational in the other : and moreover, 
in the compass of this various and discursive talk, there 
has been included a hundred points of feeling and of sen- 
timent, as well as very many references to whatever is 
beautiful and sublime in nature ; so that in a word, a 
thorough communion of souls, and an intermixture of the 
two moral and rational beings has had place ; and whe- 
ther the unseen mind be an embodied one or not ; whether 
a native of earth, or of some distant planet, it is quite cer- 
tain to the first party, that this mind and his own are 
thoroughly homogeneous. Or let some fact be expressed 
in another style, and we may then say, that so many points 
of analogy have been touched in the course of this con- 
versation, as serve to bring the two minds into full corres- 
pondence, in relation to all the principal elements of their 
nature. Whatever may happen to be the difference be- 
tween them as to power, or knowledge, or corporeal con- 
dition, they are, essentially of the same order. Now let the 
windows be thrown open and day-light admitted into the 
chamber, and perhaps both might wonder at the form, the 
attire, the stature of the other ; but this surprise could en- 
dure only a moment ; and then the tranquil communion of 
souls, which had already been carried on in the dark, 
would quickly be restored, in the light. 

We have however one other step to take in completing 
this illustration : we suppose then that these two parties 
go abroad, and then actually look upon those thousand ob- 
jects, animate and inanimate, earthly and celestial, of 
which, just before they had been talking. That is to say, 
the very same instances of fitness, and of the adjustment 
of means to ends, and the very same instances of benefi- 
cent contrivance, and the very same aspects of beauty and 
grandeur, which, a few minutes before, had been present 
to the two minds, through the medium of words, are now 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 309 

present to them, through the medium of the senses. The 
very same consecutiveness of cause and effect, the very 
same expressions of beneficence, the very same intelligible 
exhibitions of a devising mind which when described in 
words, has convinced the one party that he was conferring 
with a rational nature, though unseen — a nature knowing 
and benevolent; these actual utterances of the soul, open- 
ing a free communion between the two, are now no longer 
subjected to the imperfections, and the obscurity of arbi- 
trary sounds, poorly conveying the idea they stand for ; but 
are offered to the reason in the perceptible forms of the 
objects themselves. Are then these minds removed, by 
this change in the medium of expression — a change from 
a less perfect, to a more perfect mode of utterance — there- 
by removed to a point more remote from the Mind, so un- 
folding itself in the fitness, the beauty, and the beneficence 
of the material world 1 Surely we should say the contrary. 

Or we might propound our question in another form and 
ask, whether fitness, beauty, and goodness, set forth in or- 
derly discourse, can be held to warrant a stronger persua- 
sion of our immediate correspondence with Mind, than is 
warranted by the actual inspection of the very same fitness, 
beauty, and goodness, in the instances so spoken of; or, in a 
word, is it really a better proof of intelligence to describe a 
world, than to make one ? 

If any one comes to me, with a fly on the point of a 
needle, and proceeds skilfully to dissect it, and to explain 
the mechanism of locomotion, of nutrition, and of repro- 
duction, which the insect form embodies, he leaves me no 
possibility of doubting that he is gifted, not merely with the 
faculty of speech, but with reason also, and with reason 
like my own, and probably much superior to my own. But 
now is not the fly itself a palpable discourse — is it not a 
tangible utterance of these very same elements of reason 
and benevolence ? The pulling the fly, limb from limb, for 



310 home education: 

the purpose of exhibiting its mechanism, persuades me of 
the presence of an Instructor — of one like myself in fa- 
culty, although my superior in knowledge ; but the living 
fly, in the enjoyment of its being, whirling through the air, 
or revelling in sweets, is surely a still better indication of 
the presence of a Creator. To describe the animal is to 
compel me to feel that I have a well-informed mind near 
me ; but the animal itself is immediate evidence of a crea- 
tive mind, near me also. 

If, in returning from my walk, and entering my study, I 
find the fair sheet of paper which I had left on the table, in- 
scribed, in an unknown hand, with these words — -The Hex- 
agon IS THE BEST OF ALL FIGURES FOR COMBINING ROOM- 
INESS with strength: — I should not merely be quite 
sure that some one had been there in my absence, and had 
written these words on the sheet ; but I should recognize, 
in them, an abstruse principle of mathematical science, 
which, whether or not it had been understood by the person 
who actually guided the pen, in this instance, is an infalli, 
ble indication of mathematical proficiency in the mind which 
first put the sentence together; and moreover, that mind 
and my own are, by the intervention of this proposition, 
brought into rational correspondence, the one with the other. 

But now, let me suppose that while musing upon this 
mathematical verity, concerning the property of the hexa- 
gon, I return to the garden, and there looking into a bee 
hive, find— not ink and paper indeed, or any verbal propo- 
sition, but what is better, namely, — the very same truth, 
worked out in wax, by a swarm of unreasoning insects. 
Am I not then, while looking at the bee hive, brought as 
near to a knowing mind, as I had been, just before, in 
reading the sentence on my study table ? Or is there, or 
can there be more reason in words, than in the things to. 
which they relate ? What can be so irrational (if indeed 
the terms have any meaning) as to suppose that the embo. 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 311 

dying of a mathematical truth in some natural work is a 
questionahle expression of mind, while we accept, in a mo- 
ment, a verbal expression of the very same principle, as 
an indubitable evidence of reason and knowledge. 

I had been perplexing myself, let it be supposed, with 
the question — which is the best angle for a roof, liable to a 
particular sort of pressure. A friend, better informed than 
myself, enters, and says — The angle formed by two sides of 
an equilateral hexagon is what you want. I doubt this, and 
go through an elaborate calculation to ascertain it ; but am 
at length satisfied that I might as well have trusted to my 
friend's intelligence in this instance. But suppose I draw 
the same answer to my question from the honey-comb — 
suppose I put it to the same test of calculation, and am at 
length convinced that this, by no means obvious truth, is 
there acted on as often as a hive is filled with wax. Am I 
Hot then in the one case, as well as in the other, receiving 
immediate instruction from a mind, like my own, though a 
more knowing one ? 

When however we come to bring these rudiments of sound 
reason to bear upon the business of education, we find that 
much is required to be done in ridding the mind of certain 
prepossessions, that either set it wrong at the commence- 
ment, or that blunt that sense op analogy, which other- 
wise would open an immediate and delightful correspondence 
between the human mind and the Creative Intelligence. 
To this point then our endeavours should be seriously and 
skilfully directed ; and even if we were thinking of nothing 
beyond the expansion of the ratiocinative faculty, this sort 
of preparatory training, in reference to the rudiments of 
Natural Theology, would deserve the highest regard ; for 
we can nowhere else find a subject altogether comparable to 
this, as adapted to the purpose of quickening that sense of 
analogy from which sound reasoning takes its spring. 



312 HOME EDUCATION I 

In the first place then, it is to be remembered, that those 
innumerable instances of wisdom, or design, and of bene- 
volence, which the material world offers to the well-informed 
eye, instead of being so obtrusive as to command the atten- 
tion of all, need to be required for : they are manifest- — to 
whoever will turn aside and look for them : the creative 
wisdom, expressed in the forms of nature, is, in this re- 
spect, like that amount of human wisdom which is consign- 
ed to books. A man may spend all his days in a library, 
and be nothing benefited, for, to become partaker of this 
wisdom, he must take down the books, one by one; and 
must read them, page by page. Now the common phrase 
— the book of nature, should be understood to mean, nei- 
ther an open book, nor a clasped book ; but a book on the 
shelf, of which those who have no curiosity, and no indus- 
try, see nothing, except the embossed and gilded cover. 

When therefore it is affirmed that the Divine Mind stands 
immediately revealed to our involuntary intuitions, in the 
structure of the material world, we must be understood as in- 
tending that — The Book is to be opened, and the pages of 
heaven's philosoplty to be perused — line by line : and this 
reading of the Book of Nature, as the expression of creative 
wisdom, should constitute a principal part of rational edu- 
cation ; and it should do so, irrespectively of its connexion 
with religious education. 

Again ; in endeavouring to bring the minds of young per- 
sons into the most favourable position for their perceiving 
the intuitive evidence of the presence of the Creative Power, 
we are to keep in view the fact that the human mind enters 
upon its course, and pursues that course a long while, in the 
familiarizing presence of the material system, which it gazes 
upon and converses with, daily and hourly, before a sur- 
mise has arisen concerning it, as a work, or as a complica- 
ted mechanism, the product of power and skill. This after 
thought has to be suggested at a time when the conception 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 313 

of the visible world has already linked itself with every 
thought, and in many ways the most intimate. It is our 
part, therefore, by labour and repeated efforts, to obtain a 
lodgement for an unobtrusive, yet thoroughly rational notion, 
and to place it among notions of a vivid kind, which have 
become completely assimilated with all the elements of con- 
sciousness. 

The product of human skill and labour are seen, every 
day, in every stage of their progress ; and we look on while 
the operator takes up his materials, shapes them separately 
to his mind, and puts them together — fitting, and squaring, 
and filing, and trimming his work, until the solid reality 
corresponds with that conception which had been its pattern. 
Our mental associations therefore, in relation to human la- 
bours, embrace always — the workman and the work, the 
hand, the tools, and the materials. Nor is the process it- 
self ever of so refined, or so intricate a sort as utterly to 
forbid our following it, with more or less of intelligence. 

But all these circumstances are reversed in relation to 
the Divine operations. The operator is never personally 
seen; the instrumentality is always occult; the materials 
are taken up and converted to their uses by a process of 
corpuscular assimilation, which, for the most part, entirely 
eludes the human senses to follow it, even when aided by 
the highest microscopic powers ; and moreover, it is a por- 
tion only of the process that can be understood, even when 
the end or purpose of the structure is manifest. From all 
which circumstances it follows that there is a mental prepa- 
ration requisite, and that there are involuntary preposses- 
sions to be removed, and positive notions to be supplied, be- 
fore the world of nature can be comtemplated on even terms, 
with the world of art. There is a culture necessary before 
that which, in itself, is a matter of intuition, can be fairly 
presented to the percipient faculty as such. 

And yet this preparatory process, besides its incalculable 
27 



314 HOME EDUCATION : 

importance in relation to the moral and religious senti- 
ments, involves every thing which we need care much about 
with a view to the initiation of the mind in the future exer- 
cise of the reasoning faculties. Young persons who, by- 
skilful training, have been set clear of the prepossessions 
above alluded to, and who have thus been enabled to admit, 
with promptitude, those analogies which, through the me- 
dium of the material world, open a correspondence between 
the human and the Divine Mind — such young persons, whe- 
ther or not they may have become adepts in the legerde- 
main of Aristotle's logic, have only a few steps more to 
take, and they will be masters of whatever is real and prac- 
tically useful in the art of reasoning. 

And in itself how desirable is that vivid intuitive power 
— that perspicacity of mental sight, which imparts an in- 
telligible import to whatever we see in nature, to whatever 
we examine ! So long as, from a misapprehension of the 
real conditions of the subject, the organic structures around 
us, animate and inanimate, are regarded as affording only 
certain data, whence, in a circuitous and laborious manner, 
we may come to the dim conclusion — that the universe 
owes it origin to a wise and beneficent Creator — so long as 
we are used to think in this way, we occupy a twilight 
region, wherein we rather grope for a path, than see one; 
and where, at the best (to speak ingenuously) we may pro- 
fess, not so much to believe, as to hold our doubts in abey- 
ance. 

A teacher who bears it in mind, as occasion serves, 
to lead those under his care into a true position, in relation 
to this important subject, will avail himself of various ex- 
pedients for effecting his purpose ; and as these methods 
stand immediately connected with that preliminary intel- 
lectual training which, in the present volume we are con- 
sidering, I will advance an instance or two in illustration 
of my meaning. Yet be it remembered, I am not supposing 






ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 315 

that any thing like a formal lecture should be given ; but 
rather that favourable opportunities should be seized, as they 
arise, for presenting such trains of thought as the follow- 
ing.— 

Let then some very simple arithmetical equation be pro- 
duced, as thus — 

24 + 52 x 3 = 114 X 2, or, 228. 

Now it is clear that no one figure in this, or any such series 
can be either changed, or withdrawn, without destroying 
the meaning and consistency of the whole : or, if you alter 
or withdraw a figure on the one side of the parallels, you 
must make a corresponding alteration among those on the 
other side, so as to restore the equipoise, and to render the 
whole once again consistent with itself, that is to say, ma- 
thematically rational. Thus, if, for 24, you put 22, then, 
instead of 114, on the other side, you must say 111, and 222. 

But in affirming that such an equation is correctly ex- 
pressed, or that the proposition implied therein is true, you 
must mean that it represents a certain real relation of num- 
bers, which relation every mind capable of calculation will 
instantly admit to be so. This series of figures might there- 
fore be handed round an assembly of millions of reasonable 
persons, all of whom would subscribe to it as true. Or it 
might be used as a test of rationality ; and, in the case of 
any two persons meeting, who were not as yet assured of 
each other's intellectual competency, this very equation 
might serve as a criterion, on both sides ; and it might then 
constitute the commencement of a mathematical corres- 
pondence, or friendship, between these two minds ; since it 
is certain that whoever could understand this one equation, 
could also understand others of a like kind ; and might 
thence advance to problems much more complicated. 

But now, in what way does this arithmetical equation 



316 HOME EDUCATION : 

serve as a link of correspondence, between one rational 
mind and another ? The mere ink marks, upon the paper, 
or the line of Arabic figures and crosses, or a chance series 
of numbers, expressed by those figures, can have no such 
property ; but this effect must result from the congruity of 
the parts, one with another ; and the whole must comprise 
such a precise series of numbers, and these so related one to 
the other, as that, when those on the one side of the paral- 
lels are added together, and multiplied, in the manner ex- 
pressed by the crosses, the final amount shall be neither 
more nor less than what is found to be the final amount on 
the other side. Here, then, is a collection of numbers form- 
ing two wholes, equal one to the other ; or the two halves 
of one whole. That therefore which renders this equation 
an infallible means of intercourse among rational minds, is 
— the fitness, or congruency of parts, balanced one against 
the other : it is — consistency, it is — regular consecutive- 
ness, having a commencement, a middle, and an end, and 
all agreeing in the result, and excluding whatever would be 
superfluous or extrinsic. Now wherever we find any such 
equation, or any such congruency of parts, there we find 
mino, expressed, perhaps in one mode, perhaps in another. 
Derange the figures at hazard, and then this expression of 
mind disappears : but as it stands, it is an utterance of rea- 
son and it is nothing else. It would not be correct to say 
of any such series of figures, that it furnishes a datum, or 
premises, whence we may logically infer the fact of a ra- 
tional existence, of which it is the product. A much short- 
er course is before us, and we escape altogether from the 
necessity of a train of reasoning, when we say that this 
series of figures is — mind uttered. Now mind, as we all 
know, is communicable in various modes, as for instance, 
either by articulate vibrations of the air, caused by the 
voice, and to which, by convention, certain ideas are at- 
tached ; or by arbitrary signs, in like manner connected 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 317 

with ideas ; or by some actual combination of elements, 
embodying truth in a palpable manner. 

When a continuous discourse falls upon the ear, if this 
discourse be rational and consistent, that is to say, if it 
accords with our own rationality, we are not accustomed to 
use a circumlocution, or to say — we are warranted in as- 
suming that this discourse must spring from a rational 
being ; but we simply admit it, and with the fullest confi- 
dence, as the immediate indication of a rational nature near 
us. In truth, the sounds we have listened to furnish pre- 
cisely the same sort of evidence, in proof of the existence 
of another rational mind, which is furnished to ourselves, 
by the order and consistency of our own thoughts, in proof 
of our own rational existence. I know that I am myself a 
rational being in no other way, and in no better, or more 
direct manner than that in which I am convinced of the 
rational existence of the mind whence those sounds pro- 
ceeded, which I have listened to and understood. Whether 
the other mind with which I may be holding intercourse 
expresses itself in articulate vibrations of the voice, or by 
the intervention of arbitrary marks, or signs, makes no 
difference in the certainty of the evidence; unless indeed 
it be a difference in favour of our present purpose. 

Another mind, instead of speaking or writing, may ex- 
press a train of consistent notions by the means of some 
real exhibition of them. As for example : I will suppose 
that my teacher has been endeavouring to explain to me, 
verbally, the action of a pendulum and escapement, in regu- 
lating motion : but I have not fully understood him. He 
then has recourse to the pencil, and places before me a dia- 
gram of this mechanical contrivance ; and I now gain a 
clearer notion of it ; yet still, as he perceives, I labour 
under some difficulty ; although I have understood quite 
enough to convince me that my teacher is master of a 
practical principle of which he can avail himself, in the way 
27* 



318 HOME EDUCATION : 

he proposes. He then, and without another word, produces 
an actual pendulum, put in motion by a weight, the descent 
of which it retards in consuming the acceleration : and he 
now leaves me to make myself fully acquainted with this 
adjustment of the rod, the bob, the weight, the line, the 
wheel, the escapement. But now is this last mode of ex- 
pressing a mechanical truth inferior to the other two modes 1 
or does the tangible pendulum, with its well-adjusted ap- 
paratus, obscurely express that same product of reason 
which already the diagram had represented, and which, at 
first, the voice had uttered ? or am I placed at a further 
remove from the mind of my teacher, when he produces the 
real pendulum, than I had been while his voice fell on my 
ear 1 I think the contrary, and feel that, whereas, at first, 
the communion of minds had been imperfect, now it is com- 
plete, for I am able, while inspecting this piece of mechan- 
ism, to mingle myself, intellectually, with the mind from 
whose cogitations it resulted. And if, while my teacher 
was actually speaking, it would have been an impertinence 
to have demanded a string of syllogisms in support of the 
assumption that I had then to do with a rational being, like 
myself, how impertinent would it have been to demand any 
such circuitous satisfaction when the still more complete 
expression of mind, embodied in the real machine, was un- 
der my hand ! 

Or let us suppose that my teacher, suddenly breaking off 
the lesson at the point when he had produced the diagram, 
had said no more ; but, a while afterwards, had left in my 
way the actual pendulum, a-going. Ought then the circum- 
stance of his bodily absence, at the moment, to plunge me 
into perplexities, from which nothing but laborious reason- 
ing can relieve me 1 or am I now left anxiously to inquire 
if this apparatus does really and truly indicate reason, and 
does sustain the bold assumption that it is a product of 
mind ? Who can think that the incidental accompaniment 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 319 

of the teacher's bodily presence and voice makes any dif- 
ference whatever in the case supposed ? The pendulum, 
whether the contriver of it happen to stand beside it, or 
have gone into the next room, or have set off on a journey 
— this ticking pendulum, in either case, utters just the same 
mechanical theorem, and declares itself a product of Rea- 
son — of reason like my own ; for if it were not so, it would 
not to me be intelligible. It is easy to substitute one set 
of phrases for another, so as to make this illustration appli- 
cable to the organized structures around us ; or we might 
place the same general principle in another point of view, 
as thus : — 

Let us take from some botanical work a description of 
any species of plants, embracing its mechanical organiza- 
tion, or structure of solid parts, its physiology, or system 
of functions, and its elementary or chemical components, 
such as its carbon, nitrogen, iron, silex, &c, or its gums, 
sap, resin, woody fibre, &c, and its uses in the arts. Now, 
having filled a sheet with this description, which in fact com- 
prises a detail of many instances of fitness, and adjustment, 
mechanical and chemical, yet all concurring in the one 
product — namely, a plant of such and such form and pro- 
perties, we commence a process analogous to that which we 
lately supposed to have been attempted with the arithmeti- 
cal equation ; — that is to say, instead of changing or with- 
drawing certain figures, we change or transpose, or with- 
draw, words and sentences, until the species described can 
no longer be recognized. A very little of this work of con- 
fusion would be enough to render the whole absurd and 
senseless : that is to say, if we blot out or confound the ex- 
pressions of fitness and congruity, or substitute particulars 
inconsistent, one with the other, then, although words and 
syllables and letters remain, the Mind which lately had been 
there is gone. 

But now, instead of taking the description of the plant, 



320 home education: 

let us take the living plant itself; and let us fancy ourselves 
to be able to strip it, one by one, of its various mechanical 
contrivances ; and to destroy one by one, those affinities on 
which its vitality and its functions depend ; let us, by a 
sort of dissection, peel off, and throw aside, every single ex- 
pression of reason which the plant embodies — first the form, 
then the functions, then the elementary affinities ; and what 
is left to us at last, but a handful of dust — a little carbon, 
a few drops of water, a grain of iron, and a bubble of gas ! 
Nay, we might yet go on to rob even these very elements 
of their congruities and their relations, until there was left 
— pure nihility. But this is only to say, in other words, 
that a plant is — an expression of Mind — and that it is no- 
thing else ; for when every thing has been removed from it 
which expresses mind, the residuum amounts to not so much 
as a spoonful of ashes ! 

If the counterpoised series of numbers on the two sides 
of an arithmetical equation be an expression of mind, or 
utterance of reason, so is the counterpoised interaction and 
the congruence of material elements in the plant ; and so 
is the correspondence of its mechanical parts, and so is that 
inscrutable harmony of chemical and mechanical principles 
which issues in its growth and fructification. And if an 
arithmetical equation so voluminous as to occupy a folio 
page, and which yet should be strictly demonstrable, must 
be held to indicate a refinement of intelligence and know- 
ledge, much more does that combination of parts and ele- 
ments which fills page after page, in the complete descrip- 
tion of a plant, indicate also a refinement of intelligence 
and knowledge. A plant then, is not a proof of creative 
wisdom ; but an immediate expression of that wisdom ; 
and it is a more direct, and a much less ambiguous utter- 
ance of it than is the sound of the human voice, discours- 
ing of the same vegetable forms and functions. 



ANALOGICAL EVIDENCE. 



321 



Not only do our natural prepossessions, and the early 
habits of the mind, (already referred to) stand in the way 
of our entertaining clear notions on this subject ; but the 
elaborate style of argument sometimes met with in treatises 
of natural theology, confirms the circuitous mode of think- 
ing which we fall into ; nor is it a little that will suffice for 
leading young persons back to an unsophisticated state of 
feeling, such as shall enable them to look upon nature, just 
as they read a book, or as they listen to the voice of their 
teacher, beholding there — not as in a glass darkly, but with 
open eye, so much of the Divine Intelligence, in its attri- 
butes of power, wisdom, and goodness, as may be expressed 
through the medium of what is finite, to finite minds. 

If reasoning be at all necessary in establishing the first 
principles of natural theology, it is only in so far as it is 
needed for disentangling the mind from the sophistication it 
has undergone, and for leading it forward to a clear position 
where that which is open to intuition may freely reach the 
perceptions. Happy is the mind that, by a genuine simpli- 
fication of its notions has come to apprehend the Divine 
Creative Mind, as expressed in the heavens, and on the 
earth ; and so to commune with the Unseen Intelligence, 
as it communes with the intelligence of a fellow mind — or 
as it converses with its own thoughts ! 

A large portion of what is vaguely termed reasoning, or 
argumentation, is a laborious process, having really no other 
object than that of freeing the mind from the misconcep- 
tions which prevent its admitting those truths that need no 
reasoning. To a mind therefore which, by the aid of a 
genuine system of training, is already in an unsophistica- 
ted state, all such logical industry is superfluous, and the 
powers of reason are reserved for operations of a more 
productive kind. Such a system of culture involves, in the 
first place, as I have already said, a full expansion of the 
percipient and passive faculties ; but it still more urgently 



££3 364 

keys' l - i 

322 'home education: 

AJ 

demands a just and careful development of the faculty of 
abstraction : of this faculty especially we may affirm, that 
the efficient power of the active Reason wholly depends 
upon its vigour and exactness ; and these are in part the 
gift of nature, and in part they are the fruit of education. 



